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“You and John Are Dandy Swimmers,” 
Praised Nelson 



JIMMY AT HAPPY 
HOUSE 


BY 

JOSEPH CHASE 

Author of “Jimmy John and Junior” 


Illustrated by 
Marion Olden 

THE PENN PUBLISHING 
COMPANY PHILADELPHIA 
1924 



COPYRIGHT 
1924 BY 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 



Jimmy at Happy House 


Manufacturing 

Plant 

Camden, N. J. 




ir 

t* 

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4 

Introduction 

The Three J’s, Jimmy, John and Junior, plan 
a surprise for their parents and from their gardens 
gather sufficient vegetables to give a Jimmy-John 
Dinner. Junior’s contribution is a solitary beet. 
Mr. Hopkins, in return, surprises them with an 
“August Tree,” which serves the same purpose 
as a Christmas tree and creates just as much 
excitement. 

Jimmy and John develop their baseball team 
and win a game from larger boys, and in so doing 
gain the friendship of a very fine man. Follow¬ 
ing the baseball season comes the great “circus” 
and the Three J’s prove as able to conduct this 
amusing affair as to produce good vegetables, a 
crack ball team, and many interesting expeditions 
to their cave and to the lake. 

















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CONTENTS 


I. 

A Happy House Holiday 

- • 

- 

7 

II. 

A Jimmy-John Dinner - 

- 

- 

19 

III. 

An August Tree - 

- 

- 

31 

IV. 

The Real Surprise 

- 

- 

42 

Y. 

The Garden Prize - 

- 

- 

52 

YI. 

A Storm at Sea 

- 

- 

65 

YH. 

A Queer Challenge 

- 

- 

76 

YIII. 

A False Alarm 

- 

- 

89 

IX. 

A New Kind of Song 

- 

- 

102 

X. 

A Scheme that Failed - 

- 

- 

114 

XI. 

The Boys Who Weren’t Mean 

- 

124 

XII. 

The Picnic - 

- 

- 

135 

XIII. 

Proving Their Mettle - 

- 

- 

153 

XIY. 

The End of the Game - 

- 

- 

165 

XY. 

Getting Ready for the Circus 

- 

172 

XYI. 

“ Epho ” - 

- 

- 

180 

XVII. 

Just Like a Real Circus 

- 

- 

192 

XVIII. 

A Desperate Wild Man 

- 

- 

199 

XIX. 

After the Show - 

- 

- 

206 

XX. 

A Present for Ephie - 

- 

- 

214 





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Jimmy at Happy House 


CHAPTER I 

A HAPPY HOUSE HOLIDAY 

“ Here, Doodle, Doo-dle, Do-o-d-le! Come, 
Doo-d-le!” Junior Hopkins’ coaxing call for 
Doodle ended in a high squeal. Doodle was 
Junior’s pet rooster. Just then he was paying 
no attention to his little owner. Junior had not 
brought Doodle anything to eat, so Doodle went 
on strutting around the chicken park as though he 
had neither seen nor heard. 

“ Come along, Junie,” beckoned John from 
across the lawn. John had just brought the 
Hopkins’ car to a standstill on the drive. “ Never 
mind Doodle. First thing you know you’ll stub 
your foot and down you’ll go, and get your nice 
white suit all dirt. Then you can’t go in the 
car to meet Father.” 


7 


8 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

“ I are not goin’ to fall down,” Junior called 
out emphatically. “ Doodle don’t come near me 
’cause I don’t give him some cake. Good-bye, 
old pig Doodle. I don’t like you much.” Junior 
turned and marched grandly to the chicken yard 
gate. Doodle saw that he was going away and 
took a few sidling steps after the little boy. It 
was too late. Junior closed the gate with a sharp 
click and started for the car without looking back. 

“Oh, there you are, Junie!” Mrs. Hopkins 
came out on the veranda. She looked very 
charming in a soft white silk afternoon gown. 
She appeared relieved at the sight of Junior, still 
spick and span. “We have only time enough to 
drive to the station before Father’s train is due. 
Where is Jimmy? ” she asked John. 

“ Right behind you.” Jimmy came out the 
front door as she spoke. “ You’d better sit be¬ 
side me, Mother, to see that I drive just exactly 
right. You can drive most as well as Father.” 
Very gallantly he helped his pretty golden-haired 
mother into the front seat of the machine. 

“ Keep your eye on Junie, John,” Mrs. Hop¬ 
kins said. “ You know how slippery he is. He’s 
likely to open the door and pitch out, head-first, 
unless you watch him.” 


A HAPPY HOUSE HOLIDAY. 9 

John had already swung Junior into the ton¬ 
neau of the machine. Mrs. Hopkins turned in 
her seat and spoke to Junior. “ Remember, 
Junie, you must sit still and be a good boy.” 

“ I are always a good boy,” was Junior’s placid 
reply. “ I want to sit on the front seat.” 

“ Well, you can’t,” John told him decidedly. 
“ Jimmy’s going to drive and Mother has to sit 
by him; so where could you sit? ” 

“ On the front seat.” Junior was not dismayed 
at the situation. “ I like it there. Jimmy can 
sit with you, Johnny. I like to sit by Muvver.” 

“ No, sir,” vetoed Jimmy who was in the act 
of taking the driver’s seat. “ Some other time, 
Junie. I’m going to start now. All ready. 
Now don’t talk to me, John, for I can’t listen and 
drive, too.” 

Jimmy was feeling quite proud of himself. It 
was the first time he had been allowed to drive the 
Hopkins’ roadster in the street. He was only 
eleven years old, but he was large for his age, 
and strong. He had often run the car down the 
private drive and from the gate to the garage. 
He had coaxed so hard to be allowed to take the 
wheel on the short ride to the station that his 
mother had finally consented to his plea. 


10 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

Under Jimmy’s careful hands the roadster slid 
smoothly down the drive, through the open gates 
and out into the street. The train which was to 
bring Mr. Hopkins home was due at Lakeview 
station at five minutes to six. They had ten 
minutes in which to reach the station. 

Mr. Hopkins was a traveling salesman for a 
large manufacturing house. He was away from 
his home a good deal of the time. In summer he 
had a six weeks’ vacation. Occasionally he was 
able to come home through the year for a day or 
two at a time; sometimes for a week. Only the 
night before a letter had come from him with the 
pleasant news that he would be home for a two 
days’ stay. John and Jimmy had been up since 
daybreak preparing a surprise for him. Even 
Junior had helped a little with it, but as Jimmy 
often said: “ Junie’s more helpful when he keeps 
out of the way.” 

Junior was jubilant to think “ Fawer ” was 
coming home. He sang his joy as he was being 
lifted into the car, and burst into another of his 
loud, but tuneless, songs the minute the car had 
gained the street. “ I are goin’ to see Fawer! 
I are goin’ to see Fawer!” he warbled enthu¬ 
siastically, keeping time to the song with both 


A HAPPY HOUSE HOLIDAY 11 


feet and hands. Passers-by on the sidewalk 
smiled at the noisy little golden-haired boy. 

“ I guess everybody in Lakeview’ll know 
you’re going to see Daddy,” John told him. John 
was trying faithfully to keep an eye on frisky 
Junior and at the same time watch Jimmy drive. 
He hoped that he would some day soon be allowed 
to drive the car through the Lakeview streets. 
He would drive just the way Jimmy was now 
driving; not any faster; not any slower. 

John greatly admired Jimmy though the two 
brothers did not always agree. Jimmy was 
stronger and quicker than he was at all outdoor 
sports. He was taller than John and broader 
of shoulder. Jimmy was yellow-haired, blue¬ 
eyed and well-muscled for a boy of his age. John 
was slender and dark, but had a good deal of 
wiry strength. He was a year younger than 
Jimmy, but up with him in school. After all 
the two were evenly matched. 

“ Our surprise will please Daddy as much as 
the ones he always gives us.” John leaned for¬ 
ward and spoke loudly in his mother’s ear. 

“ Of course it will.” Mrs. Hopkins nodded 

and smiled. “ I know he will say-” She 

broke off suddenly with a startled gasp of “ Oh, 



12 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


my! ” An automobile had sped up from behind 
them and passed their car with a rushing, whir¬ 
ring sound. The other machine had come so close 
to the roadster the two cars had just missed 
scraping. Mrs. Hopkins had glimpsed it only 
enough to see that it was bright blue. It had 
been going far beyond the proper speeding limit. 

“ That’s the time we most had a smash-up! ” 
shrieked John in excitement. “ It wasn’t Jimmy’s 
fault, either. He was going along all right.” 

Jimmy had now turned the car into Center 
Street, the main street of Lakeview. The blue 
car had rounded the same corner and disappeared. 
When they reached the station yard, and Jimmy 
brought the roadster to a stop on the tree-lined 
drive behind the station building, he turned in the 
seat and said soberly: “That blue car almost 
scraped against the side of ours. I wonder whose 
car it was? ” 

“ Don’t know,” John shook his head. “ It 
went by us like a big, bright-blue flash. I 
couldn’t see who was in it. I guess the driver’d 
be arrested if he drove down Center Street like 
that.” 

“ I guess he would,” Jimmy agreed. “ I heard 
it just as it came up to us. I didn’t dare look at 


A HAPPY HOUSE HOLIDAY 13 

it. I had to keep my eyes on my part of the 
road.” 

“ You did very well, Jimmy,” Mrs. Hopkins 
said warmly. “ You were good and steady as it 
whizzed by us. I jumped in the seat a little. It 
slid past us so suddenly and so close. It startled 
me.” 

Jimmy flushed and looked pleased at his 
mother’s praise. “ I’m glad it missed us,” he 
returned. “ A smashed car wouldn’t have been 
a very good surprise for Father, with maybe 
some of us hurt. There’s a train whistling. 
That’s Father’s. Maybe we’d better go out on 
the platform. It’ll be here in a minute or two.” 
Jimmy liked to play man of the family during 
his father’s absence. 

“ See, Junie.” A moment later the little 
group were on the platform. John pointed down 
the lengths of shining steel rails. “ There’s the 
train! ” 

“ Woo, wooo, woo! ” Junior tried to imitate the 
whistle of the fast approaching train. 

“Now watch all along the car steps for 
Father,” John continued. 

“I can see him before anyone can,” Junior 
declared confidently. “ There are Fawer! 


14 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

Hoo-rah! ” He gave a joyful little cheer, broke 
from John’s detaining hand and started up the 
platform, full tilt. Surely enough, Mr. Hop¬ 
kins was just leaving the train when Junior spied 
him. 

“ Welcome to our city! ” John cried, catching 
his father about the waist and giving him a good 
hug. “ We’re so happy that you could come 
home. Happy House is happier’n ever.” 

Mr. Hopkins had already swung Junior into 
his arms. The little' boy was laughing and crow¬ 
ing in high glee. Even Jimmy, forgetful of his 
late dignity, joined in the triangular embrace. 
The three Js towed their father triumphantly to¬ 
ward Mrs. Hopkins as she advanced to meet 
them. 

“ It’s a good thing you are coming home again 
week after next,” John declared as they all 
started for the automobile. “ Jimmy and I have 
such a lot to tell you we couldn’t think of it all 
in only two days.” 

" Yon don't say so !" Mr. Hopkins pretended 
deep surprise. His brown eyes were twinkling. 

“ Yes, we do say so,” mimicked John with a 
little snicker. 

“ Better begin right this minute then,” Mr. 


A HAPPY HOUSE HOLIDAY 15 


Hopkins advised. “ I don’t want to miss any¬ 
thing.” 

“ You won’t. You just wait and see. That’s 

what you always say to us. This time-” 

John checked himself. He and Jimmy had 
agreed that they would not even let their father 
know they had a surprise for him until he was 
fairly in the house and had seen part of it. 

“ This time—what? ” was the hopeful question. 
Mr. Hopkins purposely imitated John’s tones 
when he was especially curious about some¬ 
thing. 

John and Jimmy both laughed. They could 
not help it. Mrs. Hopkins smiled. Junior 
chuckled, too, because he saw the others laughing 
and felt happy. 

44 I sha’n’t say another single word.” John 
closed his lips tightly and looked very mysteri¬ 
ous. 

44 You hadn’t better,” Jimmy warned. “ You 
almost told something.” 

44 1 see I’m the victim of a plot.” Mr. Hop¬ 
kins raised his heavy eyebrows, drew down the 
corners of his mouth and looked anxious. 44 Well, 
I’ll have to make the best of it. Is Junior in the 
plot, too? And may I please ask who is going 



16 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

to drive the car to that hap, happier, happiest-hap 
called Happy House? ” 

“ Mother said I might if you didn’t care,” was 
Jimmy’s prompt answer. 

“ All right. I’ll sit beside you and see what 
you can do. If I like your driving, I may some 
day hire you as my chauffeur.” 

Jimmy giggled as he took the driver’s seat. 
His father had already helped his mother and 
Junior into the tonneau. John skipped into the 
car last. He gave the door a businesslike slam 
as he had seen taxicab drivers do and called out: 
“ A’ri’; go ahead!” 

Just as the car was leaving the station yard 
the same bright blue roadster that had so nearly 
collided with their machine passed them again. 
This time it was not going very fast. In it were 
half a dozen boys. They were laughing loudly 
and yelling rude remarks at passers-by in the 
street. 

At first glance John picked out Howard 
Myers, Fred Bates and Wallace Gray from 
among the six. The other three he did not know. 
The one at the wheel looked to be older than his 
companions. He was dark, with a thin, cross 
face and a sulky mouth. He wore a striped 


A HAPPY HOUSE HOLIDAY 17 

Palm Beach suit and a Panama hat with a bright 
blue band around it. The band was exactly the 
color of the car he drove. 

The instant the boys in the blue car saw the 
Hopkins automobile all but the driver set up 
loud, derisive groans. They followed the groans 
with a chorus of squeaky ha-has and shrill calls 
of: “ Now do be careful, James! ” “ Isn’t he a 

smart little boy? ” “ Papa said he could run the 
car!” “The very idea!” As a parting shot 
Howard Myers yelled: “ Oh, you Hopkins kid, 
why don’t you learn to drive? ” 

“Now why was the wherefore of all that?” 
Mr. Hopkins asked Jimmy playfully. John was 
sputtering from the back seat like a lighted fire¬ 
cracker. Even Junior had caught the drift of 
things in time to call a disdainful “ Ya, ya, ya! ” 
after Howard Myers. 

Jimmy’s blue eyes were snapping. “ One of 
those boys in that car was Howard Myers,” he 
said scornfully. “ You’d think boys would know 
more than to yell like that at other boys when 
they’re with their own folks. We’ve a lot to tell 
you about him. We didn’t say anything about it 
to you in our letters. We thought we’d rather 
tell you. But not to-day. We—that is—well, to- 


18 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

day’s like a holiday, with you coming home and 
everything. That’s what to-day is—a Happy 
House Holiday. And pretty soon you’ll see 
why.” 


CHAPTER II 


A JIMMY-JOHN DINNER 

The car had scarcely come to a standstill on 
the driveway when John was out of it and tug¬ 
ging at the two heavy suitcases which his father 
had placed in the tonneau of the machine. Junior 
followed the suitcases with the cheering informa¬ 
tion: “ There are somefin’ nice in the living-room, 
Favver. Come and see.” He extended a cor¬ 
dial hand to his father. 

“ Well, I guess not! ” John had heard the in¬ 
vitation. He set the suitcases down on the walk 
and rushed back. “ Don’t you pay any attention 
to Junie, Father!” he exclaimed in alarm. 
“ Er—why—nobody can go into the living-room 
for a little while. It’s going to be open again 
pretty soon.” John was trying hard not to give 
out any real information. 

“ All right. Since I’m not allowed to go into 
the living-room, please may I go to my own room, 
Mr. Hopkins? ” was the meek question. 

19 


20 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


John laughed and rushed at his father as 
though he were going to wrestle with him. For 
a minute or two they engaged in a lively tussle 
which ended by Mr. Hopkins picking John up 
by the legs and arms and laying him on his back 
on the thick green grass. 

“ There, that disposes of you. Now I’ll go 
and vanquish Jimmy and then I’ll find out what’s 
in the living-room.” 

“ You’ll have both of us to fight then,” Jimmy 
told him. He had left the car on the drive and 
joined in the struggle. 

“ Come on. Pm not afraid.” Mr. Hopkins 
worked his arm muscles tantalizingly. 

John got up from the grass in a hurry and he 
and Jimmy joined forces. The fun began all 
over again. Junior pranced about the trio, 
whooping like a small Indian. John was soon 
decorating the grass a second time. Jimmy was 
harder to conquer. He gave his father a real 
tussle. The long summer in the open air had 
added to his splendid boyish strength. 

“ Good work,” his father said as the three 
finally started for the house. “ You’re twenty per 
cent, stronger than you were in the city, Johnny. 
As for Jimmy—he’s growing too strong for com- 


A JIMMY-JOHN DINNER 21 

fort. I’m afraid he may put me on the grass one 
of these fine days.” 

John and Jimmy pretended that they had to 
watch their father to be sure he did not go near 
the living-room. They ended by chasing him 
up-stairs to his room. Then one sat down on 
the top step as guard while the other went to the 
bathroom to wash his hands before dinner. 
When Mr. Hopkins had changed to a cool linen 
house suit and was ready to go down-stairs they 
followed close at his heels, their rubber-soled out¬ 
ing shoes making a soft patter on the stairs. 
They had just reached the lower hall when the 
silver-toned bell told them dinner was ready. 

The door leading to the dining-room was 
closed. Now Mrs. Hopkins opened it and stood 
smiling at her boys. “ Good children! ” she said 
lightly. “ You’re on time to a second. Where 
is-” 

“Wait for me. I are hurryin’,” wailed an 
anxious voice from up-stairs in sudden reply to 
her half-spoken question. Junior appeared on 
the upper landing and started down-stairs at a 
speed that meant bumps and tears if he lost his 
footing. 

“ Easy there! ” His father caught him as he 



22 JIMMY AT HAPPY. HOUSE 

safely made port in the hall and swung him to his 
shoulder. “ My goodness, gracious! What's all 
this? ” Mr. Hopkins exclaimed in the next 
breath as he stepped into the dining-room. “ Is 
the Kangaroo King of Kalamazoo and all his 
retinue coming to dinner, or what is going to 
happen?” 

“ It are a party for you ” Junior cried in his 
father’s ear from his lofty perch. “ Jimmy said 
I mustn’t tell you, an’ I didn’t.” 

“ Huh, you pretty nearly did,” reminded John. 
“ You were going to take Daddy into the living- 
room.” 

“ Jimmy don’t tell me ’bout the living-room. 
Jimmy said ’bout the dining-room,” retorted 
Junior shrewdly. 

This made everyone laugh and Junior laughed 
the loudest of all. He was very much pleased 
with himself. 

John and Jimmy had been given permission 
to decorate the dining-room to suit themselves. 
They had painstakingly painted white banners in 
red and blue lettering of “Welcome Home,” 
“ Happy House is Glad to See You,” “ ’Rah for 
Daddy,” and “ East or West, Home is Best.” 
These cheerful greetings festooned the buffet. 


A JIMMY-JOHN DINNER 


23 


the china cabinet and the walls. John had placed 
an immense bowl of fragrant pink tiger lilies on 
top of the buffet and a huge bunch of scarlet sage 
on the serving table. He had chosen red roses 
for the center of the table and had stripped a 
bush of late blooming beauties in honor of his 
father. Tucked in the top of these was a pennant 
which read: “ Roses are sweet, and so is Mother.” 

There was not room for any decorations other 
than the roses on the table. It was too full of 
things to eat. At each end was a large platter 
stacked high with steaming corn on the cob. The 
corn on the one platter had come from Jimmy’s 
garden; that on the other had been grown by 
John. At John’s end of the table were also 
creamed string beans, and crisp lettuce. The 
small plates of radishes on ice at each one’s place, 
pared to look like little half-opened roses, were 
from John’s garden, too. 

Jimmy’s platter of corn was flanked by a cut- 
glass bowl of sliced tomatoes on a bed of lettuce 
and a large dish of sliced cucumbers. The pars¬ 
ley that decked the roast of beef and furnished 
pretty green flecks in the creamed new potatoes 
Jimmy had grown. 

The real triumph of the dinner had been fur- 


24 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


nished by Junior. At Mr. Hopkins’ plate was 
a small dish which held exactly three beets. They 
were good-sized and had been carefully skinned. 

Junior had not troubled himself to go near his 
garden since the weeds had grown high and 
choked out the few straggling plants which had 
come up after the rough treatment he had given 
his bit of ground. When gradually John and 
Jimmy had begun to gather the ripened fruits of 
their work, Junior had begun to grow interested 
in gardening again. He had gone over his gar¬ 
den two or three times to see if he could not find 
some “ vegtubbles ” like John’s and Jimmy’s. 
All he could find were three sturdy beets. These 
had managed to survive even his reckless garden¬ 
ing. 

He had brought Jimmy on the run to see them 
and had anxiously asked: “ Are those good for 
Favver to eat? ” Jimmy had said: “ Course they 
are, if you pull the weeds away from ’em and 
give ’em a chance.” “ I are going to,” Junior 
had replied with a wag of his curly head, and 
from that time on the three beets had received 
tender care. Junior had fairly hung over them, 
so eager was he that they should turn out well 
for “ Favver.” 


A JIMMY-JOHN DINNER 


25 


“ You wanted to know what all this was,” John 
declared excitedly, taking his father by the arm 
and walking him to his place at table. “ Well, 
this is a vegetable dinner, and Jimmy and I grew 
all the vegetables except the potatoes.” 

“ This is my half of the table and that’s 
John’s.” Jimmy had escorted his mother to her 
place. “ There’s some of everything here except 
the cabbages, pumpkins and watermelons. 
They aren’t ripe yet. Oh, yes, I didn’t pull any 
onions ’cause I thought nobody’d want ’em.” 

“ That's mine,” Junior cried, pointing his fore¬ 
finger at the plump trio of beets. “ I made 
those grow. They are just for you. Netta’s 
going to fix ’em nice pretty soon.” 

“ I’m amazed! ” Mr. Hopkins threw up his 
hands in round-eyed surprise. “ I don’t see how 
you did it.” 

“ That’s what I thought when I saw nothing 
but weeds in his garden,” put in John with a 
chuckle. “ When he saw our garden stuff he 
thought he ought to have some, too, so he went 
and hunted up those three beets.” 

“ You’ve got to eat some of everything we have 
on the table,” Jimmy said, “ even if it’s only a 
little wee bit.” 


26 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


“ I see it’s a good thing that I’m very, very 
hungry,” Mr. Hopkins replied soberly. “ Your 
surprises are almost as good as the ones I get up. 
This is what I’d call a real Jimmy-John dinner.” 

“ Oh, this isn’t all! ” John exclaimed. “ You 
just watch and see what is coming next.” 

John and Jimmy had a good deal to tell their 
father about their gardens as the dishes of appe¬ 
tizing, fresh vegetables were passed back and 
forth among them. Junior wriggled about im¬ 
patiently until Netta came and took the cherished 
beets to the kitchen to “ fix them.” When she 
brought them back they were sliced and covered 
with a special dressing. 

The dessert was blackberry pudding with 
whipped cream, with coffee for Mr. and Mrs. 
Hopkins and lemonade for the three Js. Before 
they had quite finished eating the pudding John 
stood up and announced that he had a poem to 
read. 

“ The name of this poem is ‘ Welcome.’ It 
isn’t half as good as the one Father wrote when 
we named the house, but I couldn’t make up one 
like that, and neither could Jimmy. Anyway, 
this is quite a nice poem, and I hope you’ll like it.” 
John pulled a folded paper from his blouse 


A JI3IMY-JOHN DINNER 


27 


pocket with a little show of boyish pride. He 
said, “ U-m, ’hem,” and then read in clear, round 
tones: 

* WELCOME 

“ Dear Daddy, we do miss you so 
When you are gone from here: 

We wish you didn’t have to go, 

But stayed at home all year. 

We are so glad to have you come 
From cities far away, 

To stay a while with us at home 
And see you every day. 

We’ve lots to tell you of our fun 
And all the games we play: 

Our baseball team’s a dandy one— 

We practice every day. 

We call our team the Winners: 

We wrote you about that— 

We forget to come to our dinners 
When we are at the bat. 

Our hou^e is truly Happy House, 

And Junior has tamed Doodle, 

To follow him all over. 

Just like a little poodle. 

This poem is to welcome you, 

And I would like to say, 

That we have not had any fights 
While you have been away. 


28 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


We’re going to tell you all the news, 

But not right at this time. 

It is quite hard to write a poem 
So I will close this rhyme.” 

John’s poem was received w T ith an energetic 
hand-clapping all around which his father began. 
He turned red as one of the big full-blown roses 
in the centerpiece and ducked his head rather 
shyly. John was not thinking about how clever 
he was to be able to write a poem. He was think¬ 
ing only of greeting his father, so he was not 
prepared to be praised. 

“ I couldn’t have written that,” Jimmy said 
very positively. “ So you see, Johnny, you’re 
smarter about some things than I am. You 
needn’t worry ’cause I can pitch better than you 
and jump farther. You can write poems and 
play the piano.” 

“ That’s a wise way to look at things, Jimsie,” 
said his mother. “ I don’t want our boys ever 
to be jealous of one another.” 

“ They won’t be,” their father said quickly. 
“ They have too much good sense, haven’t you, 
three Js? ” 

There was a concerted “ Yes,” in which Junior, 
not understanding the question, came out behind 


A JIMMY-JOHN DINNER 


29 


the other with a sharp little yell. Mr. Hopkins 
asked John to read the poem again and said he 
would like the manuscript of it as a souvenir of 
the Jimmy-John dinner. Mrs. Hopkins said she 
thought she ought to have a copy of it, too. John 
promised her one the very next day. 

Suddenly Mr. Hopkins began to pound on the 
table with his coffee spoon and to call out exactly 
like Junior when he was determined to have some¬ 
thing he wanted. “ You show me the nice sur¬ 
prise, Jimmy,” he said in a funny, coaxing voice. 
“ I are a good boy, I are.” 

Jimmy and John giggled. Junior seemed 
quite fascinated at his father’s performance. 

“ That’s the way you do, Junie,” John told the 
beaming youngster. 

“ I like me,” Junior declared. “ You act like 
me some more, Favver. You don’t do that be¬ 
fore, never since we came to this place.” 

“ No,” Mr. Hopkins shook his head, “ now you 
must act like me. See if you can talk just the 
way I do. You have to go away down like this.” 
He gave a deep bass growl. 

Junior drew in his dimpled chin and gurgled a 
few sounds meant to be very deep. 

“ That sounds more like the way Doodle does 


30 JIMMY. AT HAPPY HOUSE 


when he’s walking around the chicken yard,” 
Jimmy said, laughing. “ You can’t talk way 
down low, Junie.” 

“ I don’t have any growler in my neck. I are 
too little yet,” Junior calmly returned. 

This explanation set them all laughing again 
and it was a very merry and happy family that 
started for the living-room with Junior leading 
the way at a frisky hop, skip and jump. John 
and Jimmy pushed back the sliding oak doors 
which were usually shoved out of sight, leaving 
only the summer draperies to half curtain the 
wide space. 

“ Well, bless my heart! ” exclaimed Mr. Hop¬ 
kins as his eyes rested on one comer of the room 
and stayed there. “ Great Jumping Jupiter! 
Goodness me! Who would have thought it!” 
He appeared to grow more surprised with each 
exclamation. “ This is the nicest surprise I ever 
had. I’ve heard a good deal about Christmas 
trees, but I never before heard of an August 
tree. And now I’m really seeing one! ” 


CHAPTER III 


AN AUGUST TREE 

“ This are a present tree, just like Christmas,'” 
Junior made haste to inform his father, “ only it’s 
got pink flowers on it, and they grew there. 
Christmas trees have only green leaves till Muv- 
ver puts pretty things on ’em.” 

“ I see.” Mr. Hopkins nodded solemnly and 
made such a funny face at Junior that it set the 
little boy into a gale of delighted chuckles. 

“ Well, we didn’t want a real Christmas tree in 
August so we thought this kind would be fine,” 
John said, pointing to the tall well-bushed ole¬ 
ander tree with its glossy green leaves and grace¬ 
ful rose-colored blooms. 

The oleander stood in a good-sized wooden tub, 
painted green. Because it was so pretty in its 
gorgeous deep pink flowering the boys had chosen 
it as the very best tree for their surprise. It had 
been standing in the back yard, when they first 
arrived at Happy House, near one corner of the 
31 


32 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


house. They had carried it indoors themselves* 
and the job had left them red-faced and heaving. 
The combination of soil, tub and tree made a 
heavy load. 

Jimmy had cut out a large crescent moon of 
silver paper and perched it at the highest point 
of the tree. Mrs. Hopkins had suggested this 
bit of ornamentation. John had made a fancy 
motto from gilt paper and put on it in dark blue 
letters: “ Happy House Wishes Father a Happy 
August.” The two boys had cut out a number 
of smaller moons and fancy paper designs and 
tucked them among the oleander’s leaves. They 
were careful not to weigh the tree down with any¬ 
thing heavy. The presents were arranged in a 
pile in front of the green tub. There was quite 
a heap of them, for the boys had planned the tree 
long enough beforehand to have time to select a 
number of articles which they thought Mr. Hop¬ 
kins would like. 

All the presents were for him. They had 
agreed that it would be more fun to have it that 
way. Mrs. Hopkins had driven with her sons 
several times to a good-sized city about twenty- 
five miles from Lakeview. There they had stayed 
a day each time and had bought the presents. 


AN AVGUST TREE 


33 


John had spent almost all of the money he had 
started to save to buy a toy aeroplane, and Jimmy 
had parted with six dollars and fifty-two cents 
which he had saved up. Even Junior had taken 
along his little bulldog bank which held three 
quarters, two dimes, eight pennies, a street-car 
ticket and a green button. 

A few feet from the August tree were two 
chairs which Jimmy had placed side by side for 
their father and mother. John had had more to 
say at the dinner, but Jimmy was master of cere¬ 
monies this time. 

“ Please, Daddy and Mother, sit in those 
chairs,” Jimmy directed. “ And, Daddy, don’t 
mind if Mother doesn’t get any presents, for she 
wouldn’t let us buy her a single thing. They’re 
all for you.” 

“H-a-a-a!” Mr. Hopkins dropped into his 
chair as though overcome by this news. “ I don’t 
want all the presents ’neath the shade of the 
August tree, youngsters.” 

“ You’ll have to have ’em. They don’t fit any¬ 
body but you,” Jimmy returned with a tantaliz¬ 
ing smile. “ John, you go and call Netta. She’ll 
want to see Daddy get his presents.” 

John obediently went to bring Netta who soon 


34 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


appeared behind him, her bright Irish face all 
smiles. Jimmy drew up a chair for her beside 
his mother. 

“ I’ll begin with the largest package first,” he 
announced, and picked up an immense round 
bundle wrapped in heavy paper. Strangely 
enough it had little weight, large as it was. The 
wrapper was held together by pins, and when 
these were unfastened there came from the paper 
folds a very wide straw hat such as farmers wear 
in haying time. 

“That’s mine. I buyed you that!” Junior 
cried enthusiastically. “ I saw it in a store and it 
are nice for you to wear in the garden. You 
can’t wear it on a train. It are too big. You 
wear it at home, but not when you go ’way.” 

“No, I don’t think it would be best to wear it 
on the train,” his father agreed as he reached out 
and caught Junior and hugged him. “ I’ll wear 
it all day to-morrow, in the house and out, and 
the next day, too.” 

During the trips the three Js and Mrs. Hop¬ 
kins had made to the neighboring city, Junior 
had clung to his money like a miser. He saw 
nothing that pleased him to give to his father. 
On the way home from the last of these trips, he 


AN AUGUST TREE 


35 


had spied the hat in the window of a little 
country store. Junior had made up his mind in 
about five seconds that he wanted that hat. It 
cost eighty-five cents and he had bought it. The 
moment he had reached home he had put it on and 
gone out to show it to Doodle. Doodle had had 
to puzzle out who it was by a pair of chubby bare 
legs and a little blue linen suit. He certainly 
had not seen Junior’s face, for the big hat had 
dropped down over his head showing not even the 
tip of his chin. 

John’s chief gift to his father was a black 
leather belt. He also gave a silver key ring, 
done up in many papers and two silk four-in- 
hand ties. Jimmy had picked out as his gifts a 
bathrobe of Turkish weave with slippers to 
match, a fat, black memorandum book and a 
cigar lighter. The cigar lighter was as well- 
wrapped as was the key ring. John and Jimmy 
loved to play this very old joke on Mr. Hopkins 
for he always said so many funny things while 
he was undoing the padded presents. 

Mrs. Hopkins had chosen a fine black leather 
traveling case which she knew her husband 
wanted very much. Junior’s real gift to his 
father selected by his mother was a black silk 


36 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


umbrella. Xetta had insisted on buying Mr. 
Hopkins a book on how to grow dahlias which 
she had heard him speak of. She had also em¬ 
broidered him half a dozen Turkish wash cloths. 
The givers had all been agreed that they ought 
to make as much “ fuss ” over the August tree 
for Mr. Hopkins as he always made over their 
Christmas tree. 

“I’m running out of surprise words!” Mr. 
Hopkins at length exclaimed as he continued to 
open mysterious packages handed him by Jimmy. 
“ I’ve said everything I can think of to let you 
kind, generous people see that I’m overcome, 
overwhelmed, overjoyed, over-charmed and over- 
happy because I wasn’t overlooked.” 

He perched the big hat on the crown of his 
head, slipped his arms into the bathrobe, hung 
the ties about his neck, fastened on the belt over 
the robe, stuck one of Xetta’s embroidered wash 
cloths into a coat pocket like a handkerchief, put 
the cigar lighter in another pocket and hung the 
key ring on his thumb. He opened the umbrella 
and held it over him with one hand; in the other 
he carried the traveling case. 

“ There, who says I’m not dressed up? ” he de¬ 
manded, and paraded up and down the living- 


AN AUGUST TREE 


37 


room two or three times. The three Js were 
delighted with this performance and ran after 
him, shrieking with laughter. 

“ This is a lot of fun,” John said when his 
father finally came to a stop near the living-room 
doorway. “ We’ll have an August tree every 
August just for Father. We’ll have-” 

“ Oh, here, where are you going? ” Jimmy 
called out just as his father slipped through the 
doorway and hurriedly started up-stairs. “ This 
isn’t the end of the party. There’s some more 
to it.” 

“ Be hack soon. Don’t you dare to follow 
me.” Mr. Hopkins took the stairs, three at a 
time, and disappeared into his room. 

“ I’m coming right after you,” threatened 
Jimmy. He skipped up several steps, then 
turned and went back to the living-room. He 
knew his father had some jolly plan in mind for 
them all. 

It was fully fifteen minutes before they heard 
his step on the stairs. It was accompanied by an 
odd, bumping sound. Junior ran into the hall. 
He began laughing and clapping his hands. The 
others heard him give a funny little squeal of 
pleasure. He came running back into the living- 



38 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

room, full of excitement. “ Fawer’s got lots of 
presents! ” he cried. 

“ Now you went and spoiled my nice surprise,” 
Mr. Hopkins declared in a grieved tone. “ You 
spoiled it by at least five seconds.” Junior knew 
his father was “ funning,” so he only laughed. 

Mr. Hopkins walked into the living-room, 
holding up a very queer tree of his own invention 
which bore presents, too. “ There, what do you 
think of that tree? ” He set it down carefully 
in the middle of the room. 

A burst of laughter greeted the question. 

“ And it’s the same ould hat tree I was tellin’ 
the movin’ men about three times runnin’ when 
it’s out here we was movin’,” chuckled Netta. 
“ Sure and I never onct thought it would be 
bearin’ thim kinds of fruit! ” 

The mahogany hat tree which usually stood in 
one corner of Mr. Hopkins’ dressing-room had 
blossomed out with a variety of odd-shaped and 
odd-sized bundles. 

“Now I know why those two suitcases were 
extra heavy.” John nodded triumphantly. 
“ They had all these in ’em.” He waved a hand 
toward the loaded tree. 

“We didn’t want you to bring us a single thing 


AN AUGUST TREE 


39 


this time,” Jimmy said regretfully. “ You al¬ 
ways do. This time we wanted it to be our 
turn.” 

“ Well, I had promised a prize to the tip- 
toppest gardener, hadn’t I? While I was 
zipping around looking that up, I thought I 
might as well buy a few more things. I never 
know ahead of time what wonderful things you 
three Js may do. John ought to have a special 
prize for his poem.” 

As he talked Mr. Hopkins had untied a fairly 
large bundle from one of the lowest knobs of the 
hat tree. 

“ Here you are, sir.” He handed it to Junior 
Who received it with open arms. 

The little boy had the wrapper off in a second 
and was rejoicing gleefully over a full-rigged 
toy ship. 

The next package was for John. It proved 
to be a dark blue bathing suit with ornamental 
lines of white around the open jersey neck and 
the edge of the trunks. Jimmy soon had the 
mate to John’s suit. Junior reaped a wooden 
pail and shovel for sand digging and a pink and 
green toy lighthouse. John and Jimmy were 
delighted with a fine baseball, a catcher’s mask, a 


40 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


pair of mitts and a good bat. The bat and the 
mitts fell to Jimmy; the mask and the ball to 
John. 

“ You boys can own the baseball outfit to¬ 
gether,their father told them. “We all live in 
Happy House, so you aren’t likely to have any 
squabbles over them,” he slyly added. 

“ I guess not” was the emphatic answer from 
both boys. 

“ Seems to me there ought to be a few hat-tree 
posies for Mother and Netta.” Mr. Hopkins 
wrinkled his forehead and peered sharply at the 
few bundles still tied to the tree. “ Of course! ” 
He gave a loud sigh of relief and handed his wife 
a flat, oblong package. He passed a much larger 
one to Netta. 

Mrs. Hopkins cried out with pleasure at the 
beautiful string of pearl beads which she saw 
when she unfastened the snap of a black 
leather box. Netta was full of warm Irish grati¬ 
tude over a handsome dark blue silk dress pat¬ 
tern. Before they were done exclaiming Mr. 
Hopkins dumped another package into each of 
their laps and gave one more apiece to the three 
Js. These last were boxes of fancy candy. The 
hat tree stood stripped of its strange yield. 


AN AUGUST TREE 


41 


When Junior had opened his first package and 
found the little ship, John and Jimmy had ex¬ 
changed meaning glances. When they found 
the new bathing suits and saw Junior’s pail and 
shovel and lighthouse they did more than look at 
each other. They set up a soft chuckling. They 
kept it going until Mrs. Hopkins and Netta 
began to laugh, too. Something very funny was 
in the air. 




CHAPTER IV 

THE REAL SURPRISE 

“ See here, what is going on behind my back? ” 
Mr. Hopkins pretended to glare severely at the 
youngsters. “No fair having secrets. I want 
to chortle and chuckle and giggle, too. So does 
Junie. Hurry up, now. Tell us something to 
laugh at.” 

Junior had been too busy with his new toys to 
pay much attention to the gigglers. He looked 
up and beamed when he heard his father say 
“ Junie.” 

“ I are goin’ to take all my new play toys to the 
sheashore,” he declared. “ Now I are goin’ to 

show Doodle my lighthouse. Doodle-” 

Junior made a sudden pause. He happened to 
recall what he had said at the dinner table last 
night about Doodle. He had said he was going 
to stay at home from the seashore and teach 
Doodle to talk. “ I don’t go to the sheashore,” 
he announced flatly. “ I don’t want to go. 

42 



THE BEAL SURPRISE 


43 


Nobody in this house are goin’. Muvver said so; 
so did Jimmy. I can sail my boat in the lake. 
You please take me to the lake to-morrow, 
Fawer? ” 

“ Now! You’ve gone and told that surprise 
before we wanted it told!” John’s voice rose 
almost to a wail. “ What did you do that for, 
Junie? Jimmy was going to make a speech 
about it and everything.” 

Mrs. Hopkins and Netta laughed harder than 
ever. So did Jimmy. Junior looked so puzzled 
as he sat on the floor and stared up at John with 
round, half-frightened eyes. He had not for¬ 
gotten the last hard scolding John had given him 
when he had meddled with John’s cabbage plants. 
He got quickly up from the floor and sidled over 
to his mother. 

“ Oh, I’m not very cross with you, Junie.” 
John was fighting back being vexed. “ Never 
mind. Jimmy can go ahead and make his speech, 
anyway.” 

“ I think someone ought to make a speech and 
tell me what all this hubbub’s about.” Mr. Hop¬ 
kins looked much injured. He pouted his lips 
reproachfully and rolled accusing eyes at Jimmy. 
w You all seem to know a good deal more than I 


44 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


know about the Hopkins family. I once thought 
I knew quite a lot about them. Now I see I don’t 
know what I know.” 

“ You’re going to know right off,” Jimmy said 
quickly. “ Ahem! ” He straightened his shoul¬ 
ders and made his father a little bow. Then he 
began in his blunt, direct way: 

“ This isn’t a real speech. It is just a talk to 
let you know what we know about something we 
think you’ll like. Last night when Mother read 
us your letter we were feeling happy because 
something good had happened to John, mostly, 
but to me, too, and to some of the boys we play 
with. ’Course your letter made us feel better 
still. We were so glad we were going to see 
you right away.” 

“ Were we?” John forgot Jimmy was mak¬ 
ing a speech and cut jubilantly into it. “ Oh, I 
forgot.” He clapped a hand to his mouth. 
“ ’Scuse me, Jimmy.” 

Jimmy nodded amiably and went on to say: 
“We hadn’t thought much about going to the 
seashore this summer because we had such a lot 
of nice things planned to do at home. When we 
began to think about it we found we didn’t want 
to go at all. Mother said, when we asked her 


THE BEAL SURPRISE 


45 


what she wanted to do, that she had rather stay 
at home this year, and she thought you would, too. 
We’ve been to the beach every summer since we 
could walk, hut this is our very first one at Happy 
House. And it’s been such a dandy summer! ” 
Jimmy’s eyes sparkled. “ There are lots of 
pleasant things for you to do here, too, that you 
couldn’t have at the shore. We hope you will 
like our plan. We saved it for the last surprise 
of all. Only we had to laugh when we saw all 
the things for the beach. But we thank you for 
them, just the same. We thank you a whole lot, 
Daddy, for everything.” Here Jimmy’s speech 
ended. 

“ Yes,” John began as Jimmy left off, “we 
thank you about a million times. Do you think 
you’d rather stay at home? ” he added anxiously. 

“ There’s only one answer to that question; a 
great big ‘ Yes.’ ” Mr. Hopkins smiled fondly 
down at his sons’ eager faces as they stood to¬ 
gether facing him. He placed a hand on a 
shoulder of each. “ It’s an even better surprise 
than the Jimmy-John dinner. I like the shore, 
boys, but this year I’d far rather be at home, 
since I can spare only a week.” 

“ We want you to see our team play and have 


46 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


a good time with us. Maybe we can go on a 
long ride in the car and have a picnic,” planned 
Jimmy. 

“ I’ll tell you what we will do,” was the cheer¬ 
ing answer. “ We’ll take one day of my vacation 
and have a picnic at Rainbow Lake. Then you 
can wear your new bathing suits. I’ll take you 
in swimming. Junie can take his new playthings 
along and we’ll all have a generally jolly time. 
We’ll take Netta with us, too.” 

“ Why not invite the boys who stood by John, 
Jimmy? ” Mrs. Hopkins was quick to suggest. 
“ They would love a picnic, and you boys would 
love to go swimming for once with them. You 
see Father will be with you to keep watch of 
you.” 

“ Oh, say, that would be great.” Jimmy went 
over to his mother and gave her a fond hug. 
“ That would be a fine way to thank them for 
what they did for John.” 

“Let me see. What was it they did for 
John?” Mr. Hopkins asked innocently with a 
mischievous, sidelong glance toward his wife. 

“ You’ll have to wait until to-morrow for us to 
tell you. This is a holiday, you know,” reminded 
John tantalizingly. 


47 


THE REAL SURPRISE 

“ Oh, very well. Tell me nothing. I think 
you’re so mean, though. Never mind. I sha’n’t 
give out the garden prize to-night, so I’m even 
with you.” 

“ Oh, it’s getting dark. You couldn’t see how 
our gardens look, anyway. We’d just as soon 
wait till to-morrow,” John returned serenely. 
“We can tell you about our baseball team and 
the circus we’re going to have. There isn’t any 
secret about them.” 

“ Let’s pick up the papers and our presents, 
Johnny, and then we can all sit down and have a 
big talk,” Jimmy proposed, making an energetic 
sweep of the papers scattered about him. t 

Junior objected to having either his new be¬ 
longings or the papers they came in touched. He 
lugged them to a corner of the living-room and 
sat happily down in the midst of them for a good 
play. He was to stay up until Jimmy and John 
went to bed and he intended to make good use 
of this privilege. 

Netta stayed in the living-room that evening. 
Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins were very fond of the 
lively Irish girl. They liked to hear her talk. 
She always had something funny to tell them 
about herself and her family who had all come to 


48 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


the United States from Ireland when Netta was 
only twelve years old. John and Jimmy were so 
much interested in her lively tales they forgot 
all about talking of the baseball team. 

Netta had a surprise to offer, too. About 
half-past eight she left the living-room. Pres¬ 
ently she returned, trundling the tea wagon. On 
it was a treat of small fancy cakes and frozen 
custard. This was her contribution to the holi¬ 
day. 

“ Netta had the very last surprise of all.” 
Jimmy bit appreciatively into one of Netta’s fa¬ 
mous nut cakes. “ These cakes are so good with 
frozen custard. I like it best of any ice-cream.” 

“ I guess we’re lucky to have Netta,” John 
said wisely. “ Nelson White says their girl, 
Huldah, is awful cross. She can cook things all 
right, but she won’t let him have cookies and 
crullers when he wants ’em.” 

“ Now listen to that! An’ it’s meself’ll never 
be refusin’ yez cakes unless yer ma says yez can’t 
have ’em,” Netta laughingly assured. 


“ We didn’t say a word about our team to 
Daddy to-night,” Jimmy said to John as the two 


49 


THE BEAL SURPRISE 

boys went sleepily up to bed. “ But I don't care. 
I like to listen to Netta.” 

“We will to-morrow. And, say, Jimmy, we’ll 
have to be as busy as anything all of next week. 
Dick says some of the Seven A fellows, who are 
going to be Eight B this fall, want to play us. 
They’re just about our size. If we hustle we 
can have a game while Father’s home, and the 
circus, too. I think he’d like to see us play ball, 
don’t you? ” 

“ Of course. Why, if Daddy was watching the 
Winners play ball we would just have to make 
our team win.” Jimmy spoke with great confi¬ 
dence. “ We’d better go and see Dick to-mor¬ 
row. Maybe Daddy will go down near Dick’s 
house with the car. If he does, we’ll ask him to 
take Dick and us for a drive on Lakeview Pike.” 

“ Yes, we must see the rest of the fellows, too. 
I guess the Winners had better meet at the cave 
and have a talk. They can come here first and 
all of us together can soon carry our stuff back 
to the cave again. Isn’t it fine that we may have 
the cave now all the time? No one will chase us 
out of it, either. It’s ours to play in.” John 
gave a little nod of satisfaction. 

The two boys talked eagerly of their plans 


50 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


while they were getting ready for sleep. Toward 
the last, however, their talk began to lag. The 
last word Jimmy said was “ Y-e-e-s,” followed by 
“ Ah-h-oo-ee-a-a-h! ” John’s good-night speech 
was “ Uh-huh-ya-a-a-a-a-mm-m! ” 

Jimmy slept so soundly he did not even dream. 
John dreamed that Howard Myers was chasing 
him in a bright blue car. He was running along 
Lakeview Pike and he had on the large straw hat 
and the bathrobe which had been on the August 
tree for his father. John thought he had the 
traveling case in one hand and Junior’s light¬ 
house in the other. He kept stumbling over the 
bathrobe and the blue car kept gaining on him. 
Finally he fell down hard in the middle of the 
road and the car bumped into him. Then he saw 
it was not Howard Myers and a blue car, but 
Netta with the tea wagon. 

He woke up to find himself half-way under his 
bed instead of sprawling on Lakeview Pike. He 
rubbed the back of his head which had bumped 
smartly on the smooth matting, giggled softly to 
himself and climbed into bed again. He was 
asleep in two minutes. Nor did he wake again 
until he opened his drowsy eyes to find his mother 
shaking him gently by the shoulder. 


THE REAL SURPRISE 


51 


“Wake up, lazy Johnny,’’ she was saying 
laughingly. “ It’s after eight o’clock. Jimmy 
was up an hour ago and has gone for a ride with 
Daddy. He called you, but you never heard 
him you were so busy sleeping. Come down¬ 
stairs to the ’phone. Dick wishes to talk with 
you.” 

“ Dick? Oh! ” John slid from the bed like a 
flash. “ I fell out of bed in the middle of the 
night,” he confessed with a little snicker, as he 
pattered down the stairs behind his mother. “ I 
guess that’s what made me sleep so hard when I 
got back in again. I had such a funny dream. 
I’ll tell you all about it soon as I’ve talked to 
Dick.” He ran to the telephone full of pleasant 
excitement. Something quite remarkable must 
have happened to bring this early morning ’phone 
call from Dick. 


CHAPTER V 


THE GARDEN PRIZE 

“ Hello, hello! ” came in Dick Carter’s treble 
tones over the line. “ Is that you? I mean is it 
John? ” 

“ Yes, it’s me,” returned John loudly and un¬ 
grammatically. “ I just got out of bed to come 
to the ’phone.” 

“ I guess you are a lazy one,” Dick returned. 
“ Say, what do you think? I got a letter from 
old fatty Howard Myers in our mail box this 
morning. Maybe he isn’t good and mad at me 
for hiding his clothes. He says I think I’m some 
smarty, but I’m just a fresh kid. He says quite 
a lot more, and it’s about our team. I’m coming 
up to your house this afternoon and show you 
and Jimmy the letter, if you’re not going away 
anywhere with your father.” 

“We were going to ask him to run us down 
to your house in the car and take you for a ride. 
You’d better come up. We’ll go for a ride from 
here. Do you think your mother would let you 
52 


53 


THE GARDEN PRIZE 

stay to dinner? ” John inquired hopefully. 
“ My mother says you are always welcome.” 

“ Don’t know. Wait a minute. I’ll ask her.” 
Dick’s reply held a dubious note. He had eaten 
a good many meals at Happy House that sum¬ 
mer. 

John wriggled and shifted impatiently from 
one foot to the other while waiting for Dick’s 
return to the ’phone. Dick was gone at least ten 
minutes. He gave a triumphant “ hello ” into 
the transmitter, then said: 

“ My mother says I may come to dinner this 
one more time, and then not again until you 
and Jimmy come to my house to eat. She 
says I’ve eaten more meals at your house than 
home, she guesses. Anyway, I may come to-day. 
I have to do two errands for her, though, and 
mow the side yard, so I’ll have to hustle. Good¬ 
bye! Hooray! I’ll see you later!” Dick 
shouted this joyous farewell, hung up with a 
snappy little click and was off to his three labors. 

John hurried through his morning scrub. He 
ate alone in the little morning room next to the 
kitchen, and carried half of his sticky cinnamon 
bun to the front porch, there to eat it at leisure 
and watch for the car. He was sure that Jimmy 


54 JIMMY. AT HAPPY HOUSE 

would not tell his father any of the things they 
had decided to tell him together. 

About half-past nine the car came speeding up 
the drive. Junior had gone on that early morn¬ 
ing ride, too. In fact, Junior was almost always 
out of bed in the morning ahead of the rest of 
the Hopkins family. Netta often used to say: 
“ It’s Joonyer and meself that’s always after 
gettin’ the breakfast ready, now ain’t it, Joonie? ” 

For once Junior had secured the coveted front 
seat beside his father. Jimmy sat alone in the 
tonneau. 

“A-a-a-a,” Junior leveled a fat finger at John 
who had come forward to meet them, “ you y re a 
lazybones. You don’t get up at all.” 

“ If I didn’t get up at all, I wouldn’t be here,” 
John retorted with a half sheepish grin. “Any¬ 
way, I don’t have to take a nap in the afternoon.” 

Junior grinned and ducked his curly head. He 
understood that he had started the teasing and 
must expect that John would tease him in return. 

“ Will you take us out in the car this after¬ 
noon, Daddy? ” John asked. “ Dick’s coming to 
Happy House. His mother said he might stay 
to dinner.” 

“ Yes. Leave the car on the drive, then, 


THE GARDEN PRIZE 


55 


Jimsie.” Jimmy had slipped into the driver’s 
seat as soon as his father had vacated it and was 
about to run the machine to the garage. Mr. 
Hopkins started up the veranda steps. He 
half turned and said: “ I’m going into the library 
to write a letter. When I have finished writing 
I’ll take a walk with you to your gardens. Then 
we’ll give out the great prize and you can tell me 
all these exciting tales you’ve been bottling up 
for my benefit.” 

“ Come on and sit down on the steps. I want 
to tell you about Dick.” John dropped to the 
top step of the veranda and crooked his finger 
invitingly to Jimmy. 

“Was Dick here so early?” Jimmy asked in 
surprise. 

“No; I was talking to him on the ’phone—be¬ 
fore I was up. I mean, before I was dressed, 
except in my pajamas. Mother woke me up and 
said he wanted to talk to me. He got a letter 
from Howard Myers in the mail and he’s going 
to bring it up here and show it to us. It has a 
lot in it about our team.” 

“ What does Howard Myers know about our 
team?” Jimmy replied in boyish disgust. “I 
don’t think he ever saw us practice. Do you? ” 


56 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

“ I never saw him around when we were play¬ 
ing catch. Dick says he was captain last spring 
of a team of Six B fellows. He’s only in Six B. 
But you know most of the Six B boys aren’t as 
large as we are. Dick said the team wasn’t any 
good.” 

“ I wouldn’t like to play against a team of 
boys like that. Of course we’d win. Then we’d 
always feel that it wasn’t very much of a win. 
I’d rather play fellows even larger than we are. 
Our team is fine, you know. We play a dandy 
game of ball.” Jimmy frowned at the idea of 
playing against smaller boys. 

“ Well, we wouldn’t challenge Howard Myers’ 
team to a game, anyhow,” John said decidedly, 
“ and he wouldn’t challenge our team, for he 
doesn’t like any of us.” 

The brothers were still deep in the discussion 
of what Howard Myers might or might not do 
when Mr. Hopkins appeared in the vestibule 
door. 

“ All right,” he called in his brisk fashion. 
“ Away we go to see what we shall see.” He 
took an arm of each son and marched them play¬ 
fully across the lawn to their garden plots. 

“ You won’t see anything very wonderful when 


THE GARDEN PRIZE 


57 


you see my garden,” John told him. “It looks 
pretty well, but Jimmy’s is the best. It looks 
better than the one Jabez tends to. Jabez says 
Jimmy can beat him taking care of one.” Jabez 
was the old colored man who took care of the 
family garden. “ Junie ought to have a booby 
prize. His garden is a regular jungle. It has 
weeds eight feet high in it. Jimmy and I used 
to take turns weeding it for him. After while 
we didn’t see anything but just weeds, so we 
didn’t bother with it.” 

“ I don’t believe Junie was cut out for a gar¬ 
dener,” laughed his father. “ I think he’d suc¬ 
ceed better as a rooster trainer.” 

“ He says he’s going to have a garden next 
year, just the same,” said Jimmy. “ When he 
saw us beginning to pick vegetables and heard us 
talking about having a vegetable dinner for you, 
he wanted to be in it, too. He hunted around 
and found those three beets. He pulled all the 
weeds away from around them and watered them 
every day. I guess Junie ought to have a prize 
for those three beets.” 

“ He says he’s going to have only beets for 
you, flowers for Mother and com for Doodle in 
his garden next year,” John continued where 


58 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

Jimmy left off. “ One day at lunch he took a 
banana from the dish and said he was going to 
plant it. He did, too—right in the middle of 
the canna bed. He was sure it would come up. 
When it didn’t he got mad at us every time we 
said anything about it.” 

While Mr. Hopkins listened and laughed at 
Junior’s misadventures in gardening he walked 
up and down the beaten garden paths and ap¬ 
praised his boys’ work. John and Jimmy fol¬ 
lowed him, talking busily. 

“ Right-o, Johnny. Jimmy wins the prize,” he 
announced presently. “ I never saw a prettier 
bit of gardening, Jimmy.” 

Jimmy flushed to the roots of his yellow hair. 
“ I only worked hard with it because I liked to 
dig and make things grow. I like gardening 
better than John does. It was easier for me than 
for him to do it,” he explained. He almost hated 
to be told that he had outdone John. 

“ Yes, and I had to practice an hour every day 
on the piano, so Jimmy had a little more time 
than I had,” John reminded. “Anyway, I’m 
going to have a garden next year, just the same 
as this. Netta put up a good many cans of 
beans and corn from my garden.” 


59 


THE GARDEN PRIZE 

“ You’ve done gloriously as a farmer,” his 
father said merrily. “ Now the prize happens to 
be in the cellar.” 

“ In the cellar! ” cried both boys. 

“ Yes, I had it sent by express from the city 
and your mother managed to get it into the house 
without you fellows seeing it. It will belong to 
Jimmy, but you’ll really share it, John. I had 
to decide between it and a very good radio set. 
I chose it because I want you boys out in the 
open air while the weather is good. Time 
enough in winter weather for you to stay in the 
house and listen over radio. You’ve done so well, 
Johnny, about not teasing Junie that I think the 
radio set will be for you.” 

John’s dark eyes gleamed like two lamps at 
this news. “ I’d rather have the radio set than 
even that aeroplane I’ve been saving for! ” he 
exclaimed happily. “ The cellar was a good 
place to hide the prize. Jimmy and I hardly 
ever go down there.” 

“ Well, we’ll go down there now. You can 
help me bring it up.” Mr. Hopkins took them 
by the arms again and started to pilot them cel- 
larward. 

The prize was in a huge thick, oblong package 


60 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

of the heaviest kind of wrapping paper. It took 
some time to undo it. When the wrappings were 
finally off, the two Js set up a glad crowing. It 
was a complete tennis set; nets, racquets, and 
balls. The stakes for the nets were in another 
bundle. 

While they lived in the city John and Jimmy 
had played parlor tennis several times at the 
homes of their playmates. Jimmy had been keen 
to learn to play what he called “ real tennis.” 
He said he would join a tennis club as soon as 
he was old enough. Then he had not dreamed 
that they would go to live in the country. He 
had been so busy with delightful new things to 
do since coming to Lakeview that he had not 
thought much about tennis. Now it seemed as 
though everything he had ever wanted to do or 
play was marching straight up to him and saying, 
“ I’m here. Take me.” 

When the happy enthusiasm over the new ten¬ 
nis set had died down, John and Jimmy steered 
their father back to the veranda again. They 
made him a kind of throne with soft cushions of 
the porch swing and bowed him into it. John 
went up-stairs and came back with a most pre¬ 
cious possession. It was the letter which he had 


61 


THE GARDEN PRIZE 

received from Mr. Burton. They drew up a 
wicker settee, that would hold them both, 
squarely in front of the swing and settled them¬ 
selves in it with much laughter. 

Then began the tale of the cave and all the 
exciting happenings that had followed Mr. Bur¬ 
ton’s unlucky tumble on the top of it. Jimmy 
began the story, but John supplied bits of infor¬ 
mation quite frequently and sometimes both 
talked at once. 

Mr. Hopkins kept a becomingly grave face 
for a while. When it came to Mr. Burton’s fall 
on the cave roof, he laughed outright. He also 
laughed heartily over Dick’s mischievous method 
of making Howard Myers “ own up.” 

“We want you to tell us just what you think 
about everything,” Jimmy said. “ You’ve let us 
tell you, but you haven’t said anything yourself.” 

“ Go on and read me your letter, Johnny. 
Then we’ll talk about the cave dwellers who lost 
their cave and found it again.” 

John read the cherished letter, very proud of 
the fact that it had been actually written to him 
by Mr. Burton. 

“ Do you remember what I told you the day 
we went to call on Mr. Burton? ” Mr. Hopkins 


62 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

asked as John finished the letter and folded it 
again. 

“ Yes, Daddy. You said I’d lost something 
more valuable than money; that I’d lost Mr. 
Burton’s good opinion. But I got it back again,” 
he added, with a little dignified lift of his brown 
head. 

“ Yes, you did, and you were lucky. Still you 
might not have if all your boy friends hadn’t 
turned in and helped you. Now I understand 
what Mother meant. Those boys certainly de¬ 
serve a picnic at Rainbow Lake, and we will see 
that they have it. They proved themselves true 
friends.” 

“ And Dick most of all,” declared Jimmy. 
“ Dick knew how bad John felt over Mr. Burton 
thinking he was a mean boy. He was always 
trying to find a way to let Mr. Burton know John 
was all right. So Dick will be our best chum 
forever, won’t he? ” 

“ It looks that way now.” Mr. Hopkins smiled 
at Jimmy’s earnest tones. Mischievous Dick had 
won the right to this lifelong chumship. 

“ It was just as Mother said after we were 
chased away from the cave,” Jimmy continued. 
“ She said we ought never to have dug up a foot 


THE GARDEN PRIZE 


63 


of ground that didn’t belong to us; that if you’d 
been home it wouldn’t have happened. Still, it 
turned out all right.” 

“ That’s not the point. Now I’m not going 
to lecture you boys about going into strangers’ 
meadows and digging them up. It’s too late for 
a lecture now. But you can see for yourself 
what a scrape it put you in at the time. If Mr. 
Burton had hurt himself badly in falling, it would 
have been a good deal more disagreeable for you. 
Always play in your own yard as far as you can. 
Then, if things go wrong, you’re at home, at 
least.” 

“ You’re not going to say we can’t go and play 
in the cave any more, are you, Daddy? ” John 
looked his alarm. 

“ Oh, no. You’ve had troubles enough al¬ 
ready. I won’t add to them,” was the amused 
reply. “ As for this Myers boy. You’re clear 
of his spite now, John; stay clear of it. When 
you and Jimmy happen to meet him, treat him as 
you would a stranger. If he calls unkind 
speeches after you, or taunts you, as he and his 
friends did yesterday, go on about your own 
affairs as though you had not heard him. He is 
only trying to stir you into a temper so that you 


64 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


will do or say something you’ll be ashamed of 

afterward. A boy like that-” 

A piercing shriek, followed by a succession of 
frantic, high-pitched yells suddenly brought Mr. 
Hopkins to his feet. He darted into the house 
and up the front stairs in the direction of the 
disturbing sounds. Jimmy sprang up from the 
settee so violently he almost tipped John to the 
veranda floor. They set off after their father 
just as Netta and Mrs. Hopkins appeared in the 
hall and joined the hurrying procession. All 
knew too well those shrill, familiar squeals. 
Junior was in mischief again and things had 
turned out badly. 



CHAPTER VI 


A STORM AT SEA 

If Jimmy and John had not been so absorbed 
in their own plans they might have noticed Ju¬ 
nior’s absence when they went out to their gardens 
with their father. Junior usually joined all such 
expeditions, though he soon lost interest in them 
and flitted away to something that he found more 
amusing. Having had a long spin on the front 
seat of the car, Junior remembered the rich har¬ 
vest of presents he had reaped from the hat tree. 
He had carefully arranged them in the comer of 
the living-room where he had been playing the 
evening before. To think of his new pail and 
shovel and his white-sailed boat was to go and 
look for them. 

After a few failures he managed to hang the 
pail and shovel over one dimpled wrist and get 
his short arms around the ship and the light¬ 
house. Then he set off for the chicken park to 
show Doodle his treasures. At the gate he had 
65 


66 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


to let go of his load in order to open it. He 
shoved the pail and shovel in first. The ship and 
lighthouse followed them. Junior had been told 
over and over again never to leave the chicken 
yard gate open. He had done so once and the 
chickens had had a wonderful outing in the gar¬ 
dens and on the lawn until Jimmy had spied them 
and brought their expedition to a fleeing, squawk¬ 
ing end. Junior did not forget what a long time 
it had taken poor Jimmy to round up the last 
runaway hen and how vexed he was over it. 
Thereafter he took pains to close the gate the in¬ 
stant he had passed through. 

Doodle had not seen his little owner that morn¬ 
ing so he was very friendly and came up to Junior 
on the run. He gave an inquiring “ Cuh-huh? ” 
and poked his neck forward to see what was in 
the pail. The ship and the lighthouse had no 
charm for him. 

“ I don’t bring you anything to eat—not yet, 
Doodle. You look at my new presents now. 
After while I are going to bring you some corn 
and a cookie.” Junior flourished the ship before 
Doodle’s eyes. 

Doodle began a slow and stately march around 
Junior, his attention fixed on the pail. Junior 


A STORM AT SEA 


67 


turned it upside down on the ground to prove to 
his pet that it held nothing. Doodle still kept a 
hungry eye on it. 

“I know what you want, Doodle!” Junior 
happened to think that Jimmy sometimes dug up 
the dirt in spots in the chicken yard so that the 
chickens could scratch for bugs and worms. “ I 
are goin’ to dig up some dirt for you with my 
nice new shovel.” Junior chose a bare spot of 
ground and dug the little sand shovel into it. 
He put so much energy into the digging, for the 
soil was sun-baked and hard, that his shovel soon 
broke in two. 

“ N-o-o-w! ” He was half ready to cry at this 
accident. He plumped down in the dirt and tried 
to fit the two pieces together. Doodle took this 
chance to snap up an earthworm which Junior 
had dug. He gobbled it and began peering into 
the loosened ground for another. 

“ Shoo, shoo! Go away. I are mad at you, 
Doodle. See what you made me do.” Junior 
held up the pieces of shovel then flapped them at 
his pet. Doodle had run off a few steps and was 
now strutting cautiously forward again. “ Maybe 
I don’t bring you anything. You don’t know 
much, anyhow.” Junior scrambled crossly to his 


68 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

feet, said “B 00 - 00 !” at Doodle in a loud, dis'- 
pleased voice and began to reload his small self 
with his playthings. 

His little flare of temper did not worry Doodle. 
It was not the first time Junior had booed at him. 
Now the little, golden-haired boy had hustled off 
in the queer way he behaved at times. But he 
had left the nice bit of turned-up earth behind 
him. Doodle was just as well pleased. He 
began eagerly working his new claim and 
“ quawked ” to the other chickens to share it 
with him. 

Junior went on into the house. On the way 
from the chicken yard a bright idea popped into 
his lively brain. He pattered through the hall 
and up the stairs as fast as his small, sandaled 
feet would carry him. He reached the second 
floor landing just as John and Jimmy and Mr. 
Hopkins came into the house at the side entrance 
which led to the cellar. He heard their voices, 
but paid no attention to them. He was too busy 
with his own affairs. 

Later, while Mr. Hopkins sat listening inter¬ 
estedly to John and Jimmy on the cool, shaded 
veranda. Junior was having a glorious time as 
sailing master of his new boat. There was not 


A STORM AT SEA 


so much as a narrow ditch or even a puddle of 
water about the grounds of Happy House. 
Junior had asked Jimmy, his idol, “ Where are 
some water at home for me to sail my boat?” 
Jimmy had replied that the nearest water was 
Rainbow Lake. Looking proudly at the trim, 
gaily-painted boat he was carrying, Junior had 
happened to recall that, once, when they were 
living in the city, John and Jimmy had sailed 
two tiny boats for him in the bathtub. Junior 
was big enough now to sail his own boat in die 
bathtub; at least he thought he was. 

As it happened Mrs. Hopkins and Netta were 
both in the kitchen talking over the best way to 
make tomato preserves. Junior had a clear field. 
The porcelain tub was large and deep. His 
blue eyes sparkled as he took hold of the rubber 
plug on its nickel chain. He had to lean so far 
over he almost pitched headlong into the tub as 
he worked to put the plug in place. It fitted at 
last. He clutched one of the faucets in both 
hands and gave it a hard turn. A stream of cold 
water gushed into the tub. Junior let go of the 
faucet and clapped his hands. Next he tried to 
turn on the other faucet but could not budge it. 
“ You hurry up, old water,” he kept saying im- 


70 JIMMY. AT HAPPY HOUSE 

patiently as he circled the big white tub and 
frowned because it did not fill faster. “ You 
hurry up. I are goin’ to sail my boat.” 

When the water had risen until it was within a 
few inches of the top Junior remembered to turn 
off the flow. He found this a harder job than 
turning the water on. He tugged away at the 
one faucet, then set his lighthouse over the two. 
It stayed there at a slight tip-tilt. Then he went 
down to the other end of the tub with his boat. 
He launched it with a jolly little hurrah and 
floated his wooden sand pail after it. 

The boat obligingly sailed straight to the other 
end of the tub, bumped into the lighthouse and 
sent it over the tub’s edge to the floor. The pail 
bobbed aimlessly about, then turned on one side. 
Junior scrambled to reestablish the lighthouse, 
right the pail and keep things moving. He sent 
his boat skimming for the opposite end of the tub 
and hustled after it. He laughed and cheered 
and splashed himself with water until his little 
pink madras suit was thoroughly soaked. Twice, 
in leaning against the tub’s smooth edge, he 
slipped and plunged both arms into the water 
to the shoulder. 

“ Why don’t you stay stood up? ” he asked the 


71 


. A STORM AT SEA 

lighthouse severely as it toppled over for the 
twelfth time. “ I are goin’ to get a string and 
tie you tight. Then you can’t fall down.” 

As he bent to pick up the toy he felt a sudden 
trickle of cold water on his neck. Next instant 
a little cascade began to pour over his sandals. 
“Oooo-oo!” he exclaimed and jumped away 
from the tub. He flung down the lighthouse, 
threw up his chubby arms and began to scream. 

“ Ah-h! Wee-ee! Ow-w-w! Muwer-r-r! ” 
He sent up this shrill call for help as the water 
rushed over the tub’s edge and flowed to the floor 
with a kind of subdued roar. The gallant ship 
sailed clear of the tub and capsized. The wooden 
pail struck against the faucets and anchored there. 
Meanwhile Junior continued to scream. He 
waved his arms and danced up and down. The 
faster the water overflowed the tub the more 
frightened he grew. 

Mr. Hopkins reached the second floor landing 
first. He was just in time to meet a stream of 
water winding out of the bathroom into the hall. 
After it came Junior, his mouth wide open, tears 
rolling down his rosy cheeks. He caught his 
father by an arm with a fresh burst of yells. 

“ Great Scott! ” Mr. Hopkins lifted the dis- 


72 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

tracted sailing master hastily to one side and 
bounded into the bathroom. It was a second’s 
work to pull the rubber plug from the bottom of 
the tub. The flood began to subside with a com¬ 
plaining gurgle. The cold water faucet was 
still running a stream of water. Junior’s mis¬ 
chievous hands had not turned it off entirely. 
Thus disaster had come upon him in the midst of 
his good time. 

“Junior Hopkins, what will you do next?” 
Mrs. Hopkins, Netta, John and Jimmy had now 
reached the landing. The stream of water flow¬ 
ing through the hall gave Mrs. Hopkins a fair 
idea of what had happened. 

Junior decided he did not need his mother at 
all and made a frantic dash for the bathroom. 
She caught him and walked him back into the 
hall. <( Look at your suit! It’s wringing wet! 
Such a naughty boy! You know better than to 
get into such mischief. I’m going to punish you 
for this.” Mrs. Hopkins spoke in her sternest 
voice. Junior knew he was going to have trou¬ 
ble. 

“ And it’s the mop and pail I’ll be runnin’ 
for.” Netta hurried down-stairs faster than she 
had come up. 


73 


A STORM AT SEA 

“ Quick, boys; go and bring some old cotton 
cloths from the storeroom,” Mr. Hopkins briskly 
ordered. “ We’ll help Netta wipe up the water 
before it soaks through the floor to the down¬ 
stairs ceiling.” 

John and Jimmy were trying hard to keep back 
their laughter. Junior was wringing wet, even 
to his curls. His mother was keeping a firm 
hold on him and he looked so crestfallen as he 
stood with one pink finger in his mouth that his 
brothers wanted to shout. 

“ I am going to put this naughty little boy to 
bed now,” Mrs. Hopkins looked at Junior in deep 
displeasure, “ and he must stay in bed the rest of 
the morning and all afternoon. I may not let 
him come down-stairs to dinner this evening.” 

“ I are not goin’ to bed,” Junior flatly an¬ 
nounced. “ I have to stay here and see Fawer. 
Favver’s goin’ away pretty soon.” Pie cast a 
hopeful glance toward his father. Thus far 
“ Fawer ” hadn’t scolded him. 

“ Oh, no; you will have to do as Mother tells 
you,” Mr. Hopkins returned, looking very sol¬ 
emn. “ I’m sorry, but you see no one but Junior 
is to blame for this trouble. He is the little boy 
who got into mischief.’* 


74 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

Junior stared at his father for a moment. 
“ No-o-o-o! ” he burst forth. “ I don’t want to go 
to bed. I can’t go to bed. I are goin’ riding 
with you this afternoon.” 

“ Not this afternoon.” Mr. Hopkins shook his 
head. “ I couldn’t think of taking you out in 
the car to-day.” 

By this time Netta had returned with the scrub 
pail and mop and John and Jimmy had come 
from the storeroom with an armful of cotton 
cloths. The minute the two boys had gone out 
of Junior’s sight they had begun to laugh. They 
were still laughing a little when they returned. 
Mrs. Hopkins was just walking Junior from the 
scene. He was balking every step of the way and 
crying loudly. His mother had not allowed him 
to take along his cherished lighthouse, pail and 
boat to cheer him in exile and he was not only 
very unhappy, but decidedly cross. 

While John and Jimmy were helping wipe up 
the flood the door-bell rang loudly three times. 

“ Maybe that’s Dick.” Jimmy sprang from 
the bathroom floor to his feet, tossed the wet wip¬ 
ing cloth onto a heap of others and started for 
the stairs. 

“ No, it isn’t Dick.” John was right behind 


A STORM AT SEA 


75 


him. “ Dick won’t be here until this afternoon. 
His mother wouldn’t let him come early and stay 
to lunch and dinner, too.” 

The two boys’ hands found the door-knob to¬ 
gether. They opened the door and nearly 
tumbled backward in surprise. Their caller was 
Mr. Burton. 


! 


CHAPTER VII 


A QUEER CHALLENGE 

“ Good-morning, boys. How are you to¬ 
day? ” Mr. Burton’s loud voice sounded kind and 
cheery. He smiled and shook hands with the 
two boys. “ Is your father at home? ” he in¬ 
quired. “ I thought I’d drop in and get better 
acquainted with him.” 

“ Yes, Mr. Burton,” John and Jimmy said to¬ 
gether. They were pleased to see their big visitor 
and even more pleased because he had happened 
to call when their father was at home. 

“ He’ll be glad to see you,” Jimmy said in his 
direct fashion. “We were telling him about the 
cave this morning. He’s home from the west, 
but only for two days. Please come into the 
living-room. You go and tell him Mr. Burton is 
here, Johnny.” 

Jimmy led the way to the living-room while 
John sped up-stairs for his father. Mr. Hop¬ 
kins and Netta were just wiping up the last of 
Junior’s overflowing sea. 

76 


77 


A QUEER CHALLENGE 

“ Tell Mr. Burton I’ll be down directly.” Mr. 
Hopkins rolled down the sleeves of his silk outing 
shirt and hurried to his room to change his wet 
summer ties. “ You and Jimmy know how to 
do the honors until I get there.” 

John hurried down-stairs with the message to 
find Jimmy telling Mr. Burton all about the 
August tree. The oleander still stood in its cor¬ 
ner, gay with its fancy gilt and silver decorations. 
“ What kind of tree would you call that? ” Mr. 
Burton had asked rather curiously. 

“We have lots of such funny good times,” 
Jimmy was saying as John entered. “We like 
to make up surprises for Father when he comes 
home on his vacations. He gives us fine ones too. 
We had a dandy one just this morning. We 
call our house Happy House. There’s generally 
something happy going on in it.” 

“ That’s good. I never have any wonderful 
surprises but I’d like to hear about yours. What 
was the surprise this morning? ” 

Mr. Burton’s letter had made such an impres¬ 
sion on both boys that now neither stood in awe 
of the big man as they had formerly. He had 
given them the cave. That made everything 
right. They began telling him in concert about 


78 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

the new tennis set. They were giving him an 
enthusiastic description of it when their father 
appeared. 

Mr. Burton rose from his chair and met Mr. 
Hopkins half-way across the room with a hearty 
handclasp. 

“ Good-morning, Mr. Hopkins,” he said cor¬ 
dially. “ I thought I would pay you a neigh¬ 
borly call. I used to consider most of the Lake- 
view folks as my neighbors, but the town has 
grown so, I find more strangers of late than 
neighbors. I was born and brought up in Lake- 
view. When I was a youngster it was only a 
handful of little frame houses.” 

“ I’m very glad to see you,” Mr. Hopkins re¬ 
turned in his genial way. “ I understand that 
you are one of the pioneers of this town.” 

John and Jimmy would have liked to stay and 
hear more of the talk, but Jimmy made a little 
private signal to John that they must go. 

“We think you’d like to talk to Father, Mr. 
Burton, so we will go on outdoors,” Jimmy said. 

“ We hope you’ll come and see us often.” John 
sincerely meant this. He thought some day they 
might invite Mr. Burton to a ball game, if their 
team did well. 


79 


A QUEER CHALLENGE 

The shining black car that had caused John so 
much trouble stood far down the drive. “ I guess 
there isn't anybody around to break the wind 
shield this time, ,, John said rather grimly as he 
and Jimmy circled the big machine and looked it 
critically over. 

Mr. Burton's call lasted almost an hour. When 
he and Mr. Hopkins finally came out on the 
veranda, they went down the steps and across the 
lawn to the boys’ gardens. Mr. Hopkins called 
to John and Jimmy. They were walking about 
the lot trying to pick out the best place for a 
tennis court. The boys obeyed the call on the 
run and the last few minutes of Mr. Burton's 
visit were spent with the two youngsters. This 
was precisely what Mr. Burton wanted. He had 
taken a decided fancy to the Hopkins boys and 
wished to become better acquainted with them. 

Lunch was hardly over when Dick came racing 
up the front walk, his freckled face alive with the 
news he had to tell. John and Jimmy had posted 
themselves in the front yard to watch for him the 
instant they had made hasty, but appreciative, 
way with their dessert. 

“ Oh, uh, I'm glad I got here! ” Dick made a 
frisky little bounce and caught Jimmy by one of 


80 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

his square shoulders. “ I was as ’fraid as any¬ 
thing my mother wouldn’t let me come.” 

“ You act like Tipperary,” chuckled John. 
Tipperary was Netta’s pet dog. He was an 
Irish setter with a rough black and white coat. 
His real home was with Netta’s mother in the city 
where the Hopkins family had formerly lived. 
He had been visiting Netta and the boys at 
Happy House all summer. 

“ Where is old Tip? ” Dick asked. “ I haven’t 
seen him lately.” 

“ Oh, he’s around here, but he likes Jabez and 
Junior better than us,” John said. “ Junior gives 
him cake, and Jabez talks to him all the time. 
We think a lot of him, but he thinks they treat 
him nicer, I guess.” 

“ Who do you suppose came to see us? ” Jimmy 
was eager to tell of their visitor. “ Mr. Burton.” 
He answered his own question in the same breath. 

“ Whe-ew-w,” whistled Dick. “ That’s going 
some, isn’t it? He wasn’t mad, or anything, was 
he? He isn’t going to make us give up the cave, 
is he? ” Dick’s questions grew more anxious. 

“ Oh, he is fine now,” declared Jimmy warmly. 
“ He acted as if he liked Daddy, and Daddy likes 
him. He said so at lunch.” 


A QUEER CHALLENGE 81 

“ Well, that's good.” Dick spoke in a relieved 
voice. “ Say, I’ve seen Nelson White and Mer¬ 
ritt Wade and Charlie Newton. IVe told ’em to 
be at the cave to-morrow morning at nine o’clock. 
They’re going to see Raymond and Ned Blake 
and George Sterns. We’ve got to get busy. I’d 
like to play the Seven A fellows next week.” 

“ John said you told him that Howard Myers 
wrote you a letter, and that it was about the team. 
If he thinks-” 

“Did he write me a letter? Hm-m! Well, 
maybe he didn’t write me a daisy one!” inter¬ 
rupted Dick. He felt in the pocket of his knick¬ 
ers and drew forth a much-folded paper square. 
It was one long sheet of ruled paper, and had 
evidently been ripped from a ledger. 

“ It came in an envelope,” Dick said as he un¬ 
folded the sheet, “ but I threw that away. Let’s 
go sit in the porch swing. I want to read it to 
you myself.” 

The three boys piled into the porch swing. 
Dick sat in the middle. John and Jimmy cast in¬ 
terested glances over Dick’s shoulder as the 
freckle-faced boy smoothed out the long sheet. 
He laughed aloud as he read out the saluta¬ 
tion: 



82 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


“ You Smarty Old Boob: 

“ So you think you did something awful 
cute because you stole my clothes and pretty near 
made my father see me in a bathing suit. You 
are a fresh kid that is what you are and you ought 
to be put in jail for taking what didn’t belong to 
you, even if you did give it back. If my suit 
would have fitted you maybe you might have kept 
it. Your father hasn’t anything but an old 
ricketty hardware store so I guess you’d be glad 
to have some good clothes like mine. But just 
let me tell you that you are going to catch it 
from me the next time I see you. Now you and 
some more of those little, silly cry-babies you run 
with have a foolish idea that you can play ball. 
You’re all no good players and the second pri¬ 
mary grade could beat you without trying. I hate 
to challenge you, but the Six B fellows are very 
mad at you for what you did to me. They say 
they will play you even if you are a bunch of 
squall-babies. You’ve got to play them or I will 
get a constabule man to come to all your houses 
and put you all in a wagon and take you to the 
ball ground. You will have to play if the con¬ 
stabule man says so, or else you might have to go 
to prison for quite a while. So you better be 
ready to play the Six B fellows Friday after¬ 
noon on that big lot back of the school building. 
I am the captain of the Six B team and I know 
everything the way it ought to be. You don’t 


83 


A QUEER CHALLENGE 

know anything but us Six fellows will show 
you a few little things about baseball. It will be 
fun to beat you and we will certainly hand you a 
hard wallop. It will make you cry and carry on 
awful. That will just make me laugh at you. 
I will have a deep revenge and that will be fine. 
You will know then it is a terrible thing for you 
to make me so mad as I am since you hurt my 
feelings down at the lake. You see that you get 
to the lot by two o’clock. I hope it don’t rain, for 
I am crazy to see your team get beaten. 

“ Yours never forgetting what you did to me, 
smarty meany, 

“ Howard Myers.” 

Dick finished the letter between a ripple of gig¬ 
gles. “ I have to laugh hard every time I read 
it,” he said. “ It’s a mean letter, but it’s so funny 
—he, he!” 

“ He couldn’t get a constable after us,” 
laughed Jimmy. “ He must think we are about 
three years old and easy to scare. We don’t have 
to play his team because he says so. That’s a 
queer way to challenge a team—for the Six B 
captain to say he’ll have us arrested if we don’t 
play his team.” 

“ That’s what I say, and I’m not going to an¬ 
swer Howard Myers’ old letter.” Dick was the 


84 JIMMY AT, HAPPY HOUSE 

captain of the Winners. “ We’ll see the fellows 
to-morrow morning at the cave. I’ll read ’em 
this letter. I know they’ll think the same as we 
do. We won’t any of us go near the lot on Fri¬ 
day afternoon.” 

“ If we don’t go maybe he’ll tell everyone that 
we are big babies and afraid of his team,” declared 
John frowningly. “You said the Six B fel¬ 
lows were smaller than we are, all except Howard 
Myers.” 

“ And that’s the reason we ought not play 
them,” argued Jimmy. “ I don’t care to play 
against smaller fellows. Besides, we wouldn’t 
care to play any team that wouldn’t give us a 
real challenge. We want to try to be as much 
like the big league players as we can.” Jimmy 
had the greatest admiration for the league teams. 

“I’ve told Frank Harding, he’s the Seven A 
captain, that our team would play his team a week 
from Friday,” Dick informed his chums. “ He’s 
going to send me a good challenge; written on a 
typewriter. That’s the way to do things. Maybe 
I’ll get it in the mail to-morrow morning.” Dick 
looked briefly important. 

“ I wish we were going to play the Seven A 
fellows week after next,” Jimmy said rather 


A QUEER CHALLENGE 85 

wistfully. “ Daddy’s going to be home then, all 
that week. I’d like him to see our team work.” 

“ So would I,” echoed John. “ We’ll just 
have to beat the Seven As. Then maybe they’ll 
challenge us to play another game the very next 
week and Daddy’d be home to see it.” 

“ That’s so,” Dick nodded wisely. “ Oh, we’ll 
beat ’em! See if we don’t.” 

The three chums talked happily over the Win¬ 
ners’ bright prospects. They were sure of vic¬ 
tory. John and Jimmy proudly showed Dick 
their new baseball outfit and took him down 
cellar to see the tennis set. 

“ Daddy’s going to fix us a court when he 
comes home again. He hasn’t time now. If we 
had one we couldn’t play tennis much because we 
need to keep on practicing baseball. My gra¬ 
cious! We’re busy about every minute of the 
time lately!” Jimmy exclaimed with a loud, 
happy sigh. “ And the week Daddy’s going to 
be home! Um-m-m! We’re going to have a 
picnic at the lake and all you boys are coming 
to it. I’d like to have our circus, too. I wish you 
could come to Happy House every day, Dick. 
You ought to be right here to help us. You can 
be my assistant manager.” 


86 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

“ I’ll come every day I can,” Dick loyally 
promised. He resolved to try to make his mother 
understand that the captain of the Winners and 
the assistant manager of a circus had duties to 
perform which must, of course, keep him away 
from home a good deal of the time. 

A little while before dinner Mr. Hopkins took 
the boys for the promised drive on Lakeview 
Pike. Not only John and Jimmy, but Dick, too, 
missed Junior. 

“ I used to act like that, when I was real little,” 
Dick confessed, when John told him why Junior 
was missing from the party. “ Once I poured a 
whole pail of water down a register and right 
onto a lady who came to see my mother. I was 
playing it was raining. My mother was so mad! 
She spanked me hard.” 

Junior had spent a long day with no one but 
himself for company. His mother had brought 
him a light luncheon on a tray, but she would not 
stay in the room while he ate. All that gloriously 
sunshiny day he had to keep to his little blue bed 
and wear his sleeping suit. He mourned and 
cried most of the morning. In the afternoon he 
became sleepy enough to take his usual nap. At 
five o’clock, however, he sent up an earnest plea 


87 


A QUEER CHALLENGE 

of “ Muvver, you please give me some clothes! 
Muvver, you please do! I are a good boy now! ” 
Junior had counted the five strokes of the wall 
clock in the room and did not intend to miss 
dinner if he could help it. 

At first his loud appeals for pardon met with 
no response, though they were heard out on the 
veranda where Mrs. Hopkins sat reading. He 
kept them up so diligently she decided to let him 
have the rest of the day with the family. So 
Junior came to the dinner table that evening, 
dressed in a spick and span white suit, his rosy 
face one glad smile. He beamed on everyone, 
his sorrows of the day forgotten. “ I are always 
goin’ to be a good boy,” was his rash promise as 
Netta set his dessert before him. Junior had 
been given no dessert with his lunch that day. He 
was hungrily grateful to see it come his way that 
evening. 

Dick stayed until half-past seven o’clock. The 
three chums practiced pitching and catching until 
the last minute before he went. Jimmy was the 
team’s best pitcher, but Dick was next and John 
almost as skilful. Jimmy’s pitching was remark¬ 
ably clever for a boy of his age. Dick was full 
of bubbling admiration for him. 


88 JIMMY, AT HAPPY HOUSE 

“ I tell you what, Jimmy/’ he said, as Jimmy 
pocketed the ball and the trio of boys walked 
down to the gate, “ we could play fellows a lot 
bigger than we are and beat ’em. You’re the 
daisiest pitcher I ever saw. The Winners’ll win 
every game they play. I’m sorry for the Seven 
A boys. I like those kids. I almost wish we 
were going to play Howard Myers’ team. I 
guess we could show Howard what a real ‘ hard 
wallop ’ feels like.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


A FALSE ALARM 

Merritt Wade was the first cave dweller to 
report at the cave the next morning. It was only 
ten minutes past eight when he came running 
across the meadow. Soon afterward Ned Blake 
and Charlie Newton joined him. Dick was not 
long behind them. By half-past eight seven of 
the team had assembled. John and Jimmy had 
stopped for a morning romp with Mr. Hopkins. 
He had come out on the lawn in the big straw 
hat and both boys had playfully rushed him. 
They had agreed that morning “ not to stay long 
at the cave, but come home and play around with 
Daddy.” To-morrow he would be gone again 
from Happy House. 

“ Hallo-o-o! ” Dick shouted through his hands, 
raised trumpet fashion, as he spied the brothers 
just entering the meadow. “ We thought—you 
—were—never—coming.” 

“ It’s—not—nine—yet,” Jimmy hallooed back. 

* 89 


90 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


“ We’re—not—late. You fellows—got—to— 

the—cave—too—soon.” 

“ Well, anyhow, we’re all here now,” said Dick 
with his cheerful grin as John and Jimmy joined 
the group standing near the cave’s entrance. 
“ Let’s go into the cave and I’ll read you fellows 
Howard Myers’ letter. Oh, I forgot, we can’t. 
Our stuff’s over at Hopkins’. We haven’t a 
lantern or any boxes to sit on. We’ll have to go 
for our stuff first.” 

It was a very different procession which crossed 
the meadow that morning from the one that had 
recently started for Happy House as exiles from 
their cherished cave. Dick found he could read 
Howard’s letter to them as they tramped along. 
The Winners greeted the fat boy’s brags and 
threats with hoots and yells of derision. They 
laughed and shouted and had a great deal of fun 
over it. 

“ I’d like to see any constable touch us,” scoffed 
Nelson White. 

“ Te, he, he,” tittered Dick. “ That fatty 
spells it 4 constabule.’ I guess he doesn’t know 
everything, even if he says he does.” 

The cave’s furnishings had been stored in the 
Hopkins’ garage. It did not take the Winners 


A FALSE ALARM 


91 


long to shoulder their belongings and start back 
to the meadow. They hustled the cave furnish¬ 
ings joyfully into place and quickly disappeared 
into the cave after them. Raymond and George 
Sterns had not been inside the cave before and 
were delighted with it. 

“ I’m sorry we all forgot to bring something to 
eat, but it’s so soon after breakfast, probably we 
don’t need any eats,” Dick said as he set the 
lighted lantern on the center soap box with a 
proud flourish. “ This is a baseball meeting any¬ 
way, and it has to be a business meeting. Now 
where do you think we ought to play the Seven 
As? I think this field is a good place, and we 
know Mr. Burton won’t care if we play here.” 

“ It’s better than the lot back of the school,” 
declared Charlie Newton. “ Howard Myers 
would get up a gang of boys to come down and 
try to rattle us if we played there. He’ll be 
mad because we aren’t going to answer his chal¬ 
lenge.” 

The Winners had already agreed with Dick 
about not sending the malicious fat boy a reply 
to his unworthy letter. 

“ I haven’t any challenge yet from Frank 
Harding. It didn’t come in our mail yet. Maybe 


92 JIMMY, AT HAPPY, HOUSE 

he will put in it where he wants to play us. But 
if he says the lot back of the school I’ll go and 
see him and tell him we don’t care to play there. 
I won’t write it in a letter.” Dick was decided on 
that point. “ I know a man who has a type¬ 
writer; so our answer’ll be written on a type¬ 
writer, too.” 

“ You fellows will have to come over here for 
practice every day until next Friday,” Jimmy 
announced with an earnest nod. “ We’ll always 
come in the morning, and as many afternoons as 
we can. I’m not afraid we couldn’t beat the 
Seven A fellows right now, but the harder we 
beat ’em the smarter we’ll feel.” 

“ What about our suits? We have to have 
’em all alike.” It was Raymond Alden who 
asked this important question. 

“ Umh! ” groaned Dick. “ I forgot all about 
suits. Course we’ll have to have ’em. They 
have some baseball suits in the Lakeview Cloth¬ 
ing Store. I saw ’em. Only we don’t want 
to buy the same kind of suits that the other team 
has.” 

“ Let’s go and see them to-morrow, the bunch 
of us. If they are all right and different from 
the Seven As’ suits we can find out how much 


93 


A FALSE ALARM 

tHey cost and ask our folks to buy them for us,” 
proposed Ned Blake. 

“ Hurrah! That's the way to do.” Dick made 

a gesture of approval. “We are-” He 

paused suddenly: “ Hark! Listen to that! ” 

A quick silence settled upon the circle of boys. 
From the opposite side of the meadow rose the 
sound of loud voices. They grew still louder, as 
though their owners were drawing nearer the 
cave. The cave dwellers held their breath and 
listened. The voices belonged to boys. 

“ I'm going to-” began John aloud. 

“ Sh-h-h! ” Dick held a cautious finger to his 
lips. “ Keep still as anything. I'm going to 
crawl part way out of the cave, so’s I can see who 
they are. If I’m careful, maybe whoever they 
are won't see me.” He dropped to his knees, 
almost flattened his wiry little body to the ground 
and began crawling slowly out of the cave. 

The others watched him admiringly. 

“ That's the way Gray Cloud used to do in 
‘ The Fort in the Forest,’ ” whispered Merritt to 
Jimmy. 

Jimmy nodded. He was straining his ears to 
try to tell how far away the intruders were from 
the cave. 




94 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

When Dick had reached a position where he 
could raise his head and catch a full view of the 
meadow he straightened up, inch by inch. The 
meadow grass was short and had been given some 
care. Mr. Burton had intended the wide rolling 
stretch of ground for a golf course. Thus he had 
seen to the care of it. The part of the meadow 
where the boys practiced baseball was almost the 
length of the field from the spot where they had 
dug the cave. Dick, braced by his hands, kept a 
fixed lookout for almost ten minutes. 

“ What’s the matter? Who is it? I don’t 
hear anybody talking now.” Nelson had grown 
impatient and had crawled up as near to Dick as 
the cave entrance would permit. 

“ It’s all right.” Dick drew a long breath of 
noisy relief and began wriggling backward into 
the cave. Nelson had either to go with him or be 
rolled on. “ Well, that would have been a nice 
one on us if those fellows had come over here! 
That was Fatty Myers and his crowd! ” he cried 
as he met a circle of inquiring eyes. “ That fel¬ 
low who drives the blue car and three real tall 
kids were with him. I don’t know who they 
were; not Fred Bates or Wallace Gray.” 

“ If they’d known where we were they’d have 


A FALSE ALARM 


95 


pitched into us,” was Nelson’s opinion. “ They’d 
have thought that with five big fellows in their 
crowd they could lick us.” 

“ They didn’t see us,” Dick returned with sat¬ 
isfaction. “ What I’m glad they didn’t see is 
the cave. They must have just climbed the 
meadow fence when we first heard ’em talking. 
When I saw who it was they were about half-way 
across the field. They were hollering and playing 
tag like a lot of little bits of kids.” 

“ That boy who has the blue car is Howard 
Myers’ cousin. He’s going to stay here until 
school begins.” Raymond furnished this infor¬ 
mation. “ He’s about seventeen years old, but 
he goes around with Howard all the time. He 
drives his car too fast. My father says he’ll be 
arrested if he doesn’t stop it. He nearly ran 
over an old man yesterday.” 

“ He almost bumped his car into ours, day 
before yesterday,” put in Jimmy. “ Do you sup¬ 
pose,” he went on in a worried tone, “ that those 
boys were looking for us over here? They 
might have heard we practiced here and came 
over to bother us. I wouldn’t have cared 
for that, but I wouldn’t want them to find the 
cave.” 


96 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


“ If they did, they’d make a wreck of it,” pre¬ 
dicted Nelson. 

“ We’ll have to make a cover for the mouth of 
it. I can make one of an old strawberry crate 
down in our back yard,” planned resourceful 
Dick. “We can put grass in between the slats. 
Course we’ll have to put fresh grass in every 
few days. But it will look like the rest of the 
field. I’ll bring the new cover to-morrow. It 
will be fine, and those boys will never find our 
cave.” 

“ Howard Myers has no business in this 
meadow,” spoke up Charlie Merritt hotly. “ Mr. 
Burton wouldn’t want him to play here.” 

“ Yes, but we wouldn’t care to tell Mr. Burton 
on him,” Nelson said quickly. “ It was different 
when we told Mr. Burton what he did so as to 
help John.” 

The others agreed with Nelson in this. They 
were too self-reliant to wish to do anything but 
fight their own battles. 

It was almost noon when the cave dwellers sep¬ 
arated to go to their luncheon. Dick mournfully 
refused John’s usual cordial invitation to lunch. 
“ I told you yesterday that I’d have to go home 
to eat for a long while,” he reminded. The other 


97 


A FALSE ALARM 

boys had gone on. Dick had lingered at the gate 
to talk with his chums. 

While they stood there a bright blue automo¬ 
bile whizzed suddenly out of Elm Avenue and 
into Preston Avenue, the street in which the 
Hopkins lived. It skimmed past them and on 
down the street, a brilliant blue streak on the 
yellow dirt road. The boys watched it interest¬ 
edly and were surprised to see it begin to slow 
down. It went on a little farther, then the reck¬ 
less driver turned it and brought it slowly back 
up the avenue. 

“ Hey, you! ” greeted a familiar, but unpleas¬ 
ant, voice from the seat beside the driver. “ Don’t 
you know enough to answer a letter when you 
get one? ” Howard Myers leaned far out of the 
car and tried to stare haughtily at the three boys. 
His idea of looking haughty was to pout his lips, 
thrust his chin forward and half shut his eyes. 
He did not look at all scornful. He looked very 
ridiculous. 

“ Did you think you were talking to me? ” 
asked Dick in a tone of dry, boyish scorn. “ If 
you did, my name’s not ‘ Hey, you.’ Try again. 
I might answer you.” 

“ Go to it, Howard, and give him a trimming,” 


98 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


suggested the boy at the wheel, his sulky-looking 
mouth breaking into a disagreeable smile. The 
two were the only occupants of the blue car. 
They had left their three companions of the 
meadow. 

“ Yes, that’s what I’ll do.” Howard made a 
threatening movement as though to get out of the 
car and attack Dick. He did not set foot out of 
it, however. He was not anxious to tackle the 
three sturdy youngsters who stood eyeing him 
steadily. 

“ Go to it. Go to it,” again urged his cousin. 
“ You can whip all three of those infants.” He 
did not intend to help, but to watch the fight. 

“ Oh, I’d hate to hurt the poor little things,” 
jeered Howard. “Wait till our team beats 
their baby team clear off the field, then I’ll tend 
to these kiddies.” 

This was too much for Dick. He had not in¬ 
tended even to say to Howard Myers that he had 
received the fat boy’s letter. Now he was so out¬ 
raged he sputtered forth: “ If you think I’d an¬ 
swer a letter like the one you sent me, you think 
wrong. You say we’re babies. We’re bigger 
than the Six B boys on your team. I don’t see 
how you ever were made captain of it. Anyway, 


99 


A FALSE ALARM 

we’re too big to play Six B, and we’re not go¬ 
ing to do it. Why don’t you join a team your 
own size? ” 

“ You don’t know what you’re talking about.” 
Howard’s fat face was scarlet with anger. “ I’ve 
—well—I’ve made some changes in my team. 
Ahem! I’m going to make some more. My team 
isn’t Six B any more. It’s named the—the ” 
—Howard had to stop to think up a name—“ the 
Great Little Players. That's the name of my 
team.” 

“ Well, I don’t care what it is. I’m captain 
of the Winners and we don’t want to play you. 
That's all." Dick turned his back squarely on 
Howard. “ Good-bye, boys,” he said to John 
and Jimmy. “ I’ve got to hustle home to my 
lunch.” He started up the street without the 
slightest glance at the boys in the car. John 
and Jimmy also took no notice of Howard, but 
went up their own drive to the house. 

“ You’re a simpleton,” was the opinion of 
Howard’s cousin. “ Why are you so crazy to 
play those kids you can’t take ‘no’ for an 
answer? ” 

“ Because I owe ’em one for something they did 
to me. I’ve a team picked out that will help me 


100 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


pay ’em back.” Howard’s face darkened. “ I 
am so mad at that smarty Dick Carter I wrote 
him a very strong letter. That’s why he says he 
won’t let his team play my team. I guess I made 
a mistake doing that. I could have written him 
a real mean letter some other time.” 

“ You’re a bright captain of a team,” jeered 
the other boy. “ You don’t know where you are 
at. Why didn’t you pitch into that fresh freckle- 
face, as I told you to do? You said you were 
going to.” 

“ Well—er—I changed my mind,” stammered 
Howard. 

“ Oh, ha, ha! You were afraid, you mean.” 
His cousin, Gerald Jones, could be as disagree¬ 
able as Howard himself when he chose to be. 

“ That’s what you say,” flung back Howard. 
“ If I’d fought him, course I would have licked 
him. Then he’d never let his team play mine. 
I’m going to send him another challenge; just as 
if I hadn’t sent any. This will be a good one, 
and quite polite.” 

“ You’d better let me write it for you. You’ll 
make a mess of it.” His cousin laughed at him 
again. “ I don’t believe you know how to be 
polite.” 


A FALSE ALARM 


101 


“ Oh, is that so? Well, I don’t think you do, 
either,” snapped Howard. “ I wouldn’t want an 
old challenge that you’d made up. It would be 
no good. I’ll ask my father how to write one. 
He knows more about baseball than you. He 
likes me to be captain of a team.” 

As he made this triumphant retort a very pleas¬ 
ing idea came to him. Howard was sure he had 
thought of a way to make Dick give in and let 
his team play against the Great Little Players. 


CHAPTER IX 

A NEW KIND OF SONG 

The next week was a busy one for the Win¬ 
ners. Early on Monday morning they met at 
Dick’s father’s store and trooped over to the 
Lakeview Clothing Store in search of suitable 
uniforms. 

“ The Seven A fellows have yellow suits with 
red on ’em,” was Dick’s helpful information as 
they entered the clothing store. “ Their mothers 
made ’em last summer when they were just start¬ 
ing to be a team.” 

“ Then we don’t want that kind of suits,” said 
Charlie Merritt. “ White ones wouldn’t be much 
good, either. We’re always tumbling around, 
and they’d show the dirt.” 

“ Have you any baseball uniforms? ” Jimmy 
eagerly asked the owner of the shop, a small thin 
man with spectacles. He had come from the 
back of the store to meet the boys. 

102 


A NEW KIND OF SONG 103 

“ I certainly have,” was the cheering reply. 
“ I’ve some fine gray ones that came in just last 
night. I was going to put them out on a counter 
this very morning.” 

The youngsters’ eyes sparkled as the man 
brought out a number of the suits for them to 
see. They were made of a rather cheap-looking, 
but attractive gray material, and consisted of 
blouse and knickers. Five dollars each was the 
price he asked for them. The team looked a little 
solemn at this figure, but each resolved to go 
home and plead hard for the money with which 
to buy them. 

“ I know Mother’ll let us have them,” John 
said confidently. “ I’ll ask her to put some blue 
stripes on the sleeves and up and down the knick¬ 
ers, and a big blue * W ’ on the front of the 
blouses. I mean for all of us, not just on 
Jimmy’s suit and mine.” 

“ Will you please put nine suits away for us? 
We’ll come back and buy them to-day or to-mor¬ 
row.” Dick tried to make his tones very business¬ 
like. 

“ Yes, if you boys are sure you want them. 
If you don’t come for them by to-morrow after¬ 
noon at three o’clock out they go on the counter.” 


104 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


The little man peered shrewdly at the lads over 
his spectacles as he began counting out the nine 
suits. He had not been in business long in Lake- 
view and had not much faith in his boyish cus¬ 
tomers. 

“ Gee! ” exclaimed Dick as soon as they were 
again in the street. “ Those suits cost money. 
Let’s try to get the cash for ’em this afternoon. 
Then we’ll be sure of ’em. They are pretty nice. 
When we have the blue stripes they will be nicer. 
What we must do now is get the five dollars 
apiece.” 

Greatly to their satisfaction the Winners had 
not much trouble raising the necessary five dollars 
apiece. By three o’clock that afternoon the Car¬ 
ters’ telephone had rung seven times. “ We’ve 
got it,” was the joyful message one after another 
of the Winners sent their captain over the ’phone. 
“ We’ll be at the store right away.” 

With the problem of uniforms so easily solved 
practice went on more diligently than ever. 
Dick had received and replied to the Seven As’ 
challenge. The A boys had named the lot be¬ 
hind the school as the place for the game. Dick 
had to go and see Frank Harding and arrange to 
use the meadow as a ball field instead. He found 


A NEW KIND OF SONG 105 

he had so much to do as manager of the team he 
had no time to go to the movies. 

Mrs. Hopkins had insisted that Jimmy should 
write Mr. Burton a note asking him if he had any 
objection to the boys using the meadow in which 
to play ball. She pointed out to her sons that 
while they had been allowed to keep the cave, 
nothing had been said in regard to playing ball 
there. Neither John nor Jimmy had thought to 
ask him for permission on the morning of his 
call. 

Mr. Burton wrote a short kindly note of reply. 
The Winners were at liberty to use the meadow 
as long as they pleased. He hoped some day to 
take time to see them play. He enjoyed a good 
game of ball. This friendly message gave the 
Winners a pleasant opinion of themselves as ball 
players. The Seven A boys would stand no 
chance when they came to the bat. 

The evening before the day of the game John 
and Jimmy watched the sun set with anxious 
eyes. It dropped down clear and red, leaving 
long trails of delicate pink across the sky. There 
was hardly a cloud to be seen. Jimmy declared 
that to-morrow would surely be a fine day. 

The brothers were up with the sun next mom- 


106 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


ing. They were so eager to take a look at the 
sky that they both rushed to the same window and 
bumped their heads together. 

“ My, but your head’s hard! ” John exclaimed, 
rubbing his own ruefully. 

“ That’s what I was thinking about yours,” 
giggled Jimmy. “ It isn’t going to rain a drop 
to-day; and it isn’t hot, either. It’s just right 
for our game.” 

“ Do you suppose people will come to watch us 
play? ” asked John. “ Dick says that lots of 
people come when there’s a game on the lot back 
of the school.” 

“ That’s because so many games of ball have 
been played there. Most people don’t know 
about this meadow, you see. I’m glad of it. 
I’d rather have just our teams and the umpire 
there. We can play better ball. But I sup¬ 
pose a few boys will know we’re going to play 
and want to see us work.” Jimmy loved the 
game for itself. He did not care about baseball 
fans. 

The Winners had craftily agreed not to go 
near the cave after they reached the meadow that 
afternoon. Dick had made a slatted square from 
a strawberry crate which just fitted over the 


A NEW KIND OF SONG 107 

cave’s entrance. He had filled the open spaces 
of the square with small green sods and jammed 
the cover firmly down over the opening. He had 
then arranged more grass sods around it. As a 
final touch of secrecy he had brought armfuls of 
brush and scattered it over the square. 

It had taken him half the previous afternoon 
to do all this, but he was proud of the result. 
“ Nobody’ll care to go walking through a brush 
heap,” he had gleefully declared. “ People 
always walk away around ’em.” 

The game was set for two o’clock, but both 
teams were on the ground by half-past one. 
Alfred Harding, Frank’s older brother, a high 
school senior was to act as umpire. The Seven 
A boys had been promoted to that class at the 
close of school just as Dick and his chums had 
been promoted from Seven A to Eight B. Each 
set of boys proudly used their new rank. 

The contesting teams were on the very best 
terms. The A boys had challenged the Winners, 
so they felt that they ought to show them every 
courtesy. The Winners had been allowed the 
choice of the playing field, so they felt that the 
other boys were their guests. 

The Winners came to the bat first. The two 


108 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

teams made a colorful showing in their yellow and 
gray suits with respective red and blue trimmings. 
About a dozen small girls wandered into the field 
to watch the play. There were at least twenty 
boys, anywhere from eight to fourteen, gathered 
in a straggling group as near to the diamond as 
they could go and still be out of the way of the 
ball. 

Nelson was first batsman. Whenever he hit 
the ball he would send it a long way, but he sel¬ 
dom hit it. He missed on two strikes, but on the 
third he batted the ball through the air, and far 
out to right field. By the time it was back 
again Nelson was running for third base which he 
made just a second before the ball reached him. 
Dick came next and made first base on a hit. At 
the end of their first inning the Winners had three 
runs to their credit and a number of base hits. 
They had practiced faithfully and they found 
the A pitcher’s balls easy to hit after a try or two 
at them. 

The A boys did not find Jimmy’s clever pitch¬ 
ing easy to get used to. The ball looked easy 
enough to hit as it came soaring through the air, 
but somehow the A batsmen always missed it. 
They were plucky boys and good runners. In- 


A NEW KIND OF SONG 109 

stead of growing sulky when they did not score 
they cheerfully kept on trying. By the time six 
innings had been played the Winners’ score 
promised to be a truly winning one. 

The game lasted two hours and the last inning 
was the hardest fought of all. The A boys knew 
they were already beaten but they wanted to do 
their best with their score until the very last 
minute. After the game they shook hands with 
the Winners and made almost as much good- 
natured noise as though they had won the game. 
They gathered admiringly around Jimmy and 
asked him plenty of questions about his pitching. 
Even Alfred Harding, the umpire, told him he 
was “ some classy little pitcher.” 

“ This will be a splendid diamond after you’ve 
played a few more games on it,” Harding told the 
Winners. “ Who owns this meadow? ” He 
glanced at Dick rather suspiciously. He knew 
Dick’s reputation for mischief. 

“ The Winners pretty near own it,” Dick re¬ 
plied, then smiled roguishly. “ I was only fun¬ 
ning,” he said in the next breath. “ It belongs 
to Mr. Burton, and he gave permission to play 
ball here. He’s coming to see us play some 
day.” 


110 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

Alfred gave a long whistle of surprise. 
“ You’re a bunch of lucky kids,” he said, “ to be 
on the right side of him. He owns about half of 
Lakeview. He-” 

A burst of whoops and yells suddenly rose 
from the north side of the meadow. A number 
of boys had vaulted the fence and were running 
toward the ball players. They were led by 
Howard Myers who was putting forth all his 
strength in order to keep at the head of the crowd. 
Howard was too stout and ungainly to be a swift 
runner, though he thought he was. 

“ What’s—the—matter—here? ” he panted, 
addressing Frank Harding. “ What—are— 
you—kids—quitting—for? We—came to—see 
the game. We couldn’t—find—out where it 
was.” 

Only that morning Howard had heard of the 
game. He supposed it would be played on the 
lot behind the school. He had coaxed his cousin 
Gerald to take him around Lakeview in the blue 
roadster so that he could spread the news of the 
game to his team and the few other boys who were 
friendly with him. He glibly gave out the hour 
for the game as at two o’clock. When at that 
time he and his party arrived at the lot all ready 



A NEW KIND OF SONG 111 

to “ tease and rattle those babies ” they found not 
a person there. 

As leader of the “ teasing ” party Howard had 
to walk with his companions. For two long 
hours they tramped about Lakeview without 
finding out where the game was being played. 
They finally passed the meadow by chance where 
the teams had still lingered to talk. 

“ Game's over/’ Frank said shortly. “ We’re 
going home now.” 

“ Oh, see here,” Howard began patronizingly, 
“ you needn’t be afraid of us. We didn’t come 
here to fight you A fellows. We want to see 
you play. Go ahead and start another inning. 
I hope you whitewashed them.” Howard jerked 
his thumb contemptuously toward the Winners 
who had drawn off a little by themselves when 
the crowd of boys had appeared. 

“No; they beat us,” one of the A boys an¬ 
nounced loudly, “ and we aren’t afraid of you, 
Mr. Howard Fatty Myers, or your crowd. The 
game’s over. Do you get that? ” 

Several of Howard’s companions now came to 
his support. Among them were Wallace Gray 
and Fred Bates. They began to mimic the boy 
who had answered Howard so boldly. 


112 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

Dick nudged Nelson White who stood next to 
him. “ Start a noise song,” he whispered. 
“ You and I’ll begin. All the fellows, even the 
As, will know what to do. Don’t you remember 
how we used to yell ’em silly last year, whenever 
that gang started to tease us? I don’t want to 
keep yelling mean things back at ’em, and that’s 
what they are trying to make us do. All ready; 
now! ” Dick raised his treble voice in a shrill, 
terrifying screech. Nelson followed his example. 

Within five seconds afterward the Winners 
and the A boys were gleefully helping the noise 
song along. Howls, hoots, shrieks, long-drawn 
wails and the shrillest of screeches combined in 
an uproar created at the top of boyish lungs. 
Each boy used his willing strength to raise the 
cry he could make with the greatest amount of 
■ noise. The harder Howard and his friends tried 
I to make themselves heard the louder the noise 
I singers yelled. Even Alfred Harding helped 
the noise song along. 

“ Let’s keep on singing and just walk off and 
leave ’em,” John proposed to Dick between 
screeches. Dick nodded in the middle of a pierc¬ 
ing wail and John passed the word to Merritt 
who was at his left. It went on to the others. 


A NEW KIND OF SONG 113 

In the midst of a hubbub which a band of 
South Sea savages might never hope to outdo 
the congenial teams suddenly faced about and 
started across the meadow. 

“Here, you kids; you come back. I’m not 
half through with you yet,” roared Howard. 
Not even his own party could hear him on ac¬ 
count of the din made by the departing ball play¬ 
ers. Dick’s delighted choristers kept on going, 
enjoying themselves hugely with each fresh howl. 

“ Oh, say, what was the matter with us? ” ex¬ 
claimed Fred Bates in disgust. The noise singers 
were just vaulting the meadow fence. “We 
could have licked that bunch with one hand. 
Why didn’t you start something, Howard? ” 

“ I didn’t want to start anything,” Howard 
answered sharply. “After we play both those 
teams and beat ’em all # to nothing, then we’ll show 
’em where they belong, if they act fresh. I know 
how I can make them both play our team. I’ve 
thought of something else, too. I’ll show those 
squawkers they can’t make fun of us and not get 
paid back for it.” 


CHAPTER X 


A SCHEME THAT FAILED 

Howard hustled his party out of the meadow 
and left them at the first corner below it. He 
was anxious to get home and put his new idea 
into execution. For a wonder he had not done 
anything that afternoon which he had been for¬ 
bidden to do. He walked boldly through the 
front gate and strolled up the long stone walk to 
the house wearing his most innocent expression. 
His father sat on the veranda reading and 
Howard went briskly up the steps, taking care 
that his father should notice him. 

“Well, sir!” Mr. Myers looked sharply up 
from his book. His glance rested half suspi¬ 
ciously on Howard. “ Where have you been? ” 

“ Over to a ball field,” Howard glibly replied. 
“ Say, Pa, will you help me about something? 
It’s something I want to have just right. You 
can do it better than anyone else can.” 

“ What is it, my son; what is it? ” Mr. Myers 
114 


A SCHEME THAT FAILED 115 

looked rather pleased. To see Howard usually 
meant to scold him for some mischief he had done. 
This was a most agreeable change. 

“ You see, I’m the captain of a baseball team; 
the Great Little Players,” Howard began impor¬ 
tantly. “ Our team wants to challenge another 

team to play. The boys in it are so fr-” 

Howard checked the “ fresh.” His father always 
lectured him when he used slang. “ I—that is— 
they aren’t very polite to our team. So our team 
wants to send ’em the best kind of a challenge to 
show ’em we know more about what’s polite than 
they do.” 

“ I see. That’s not a bad idea. Who are 
these boys on the other team?” 

“ Oh, Dick Carter, Nelson White, Ray Alden, 
and some others like them.” Howard took care 
not to mention John’s or Jimmy’s names. He 
knew his father had liked Jimmy at sight. 

Mr. Myers frowned slightly. He knew of 
Dick and Nelson and rated them both as a pair 
of young mischiefs. 

“ I wish you’d write it for me. I can-” 

“ No; my boy, I will dictate it to you, but you 
must write it yourself. It will be good practice 
for you. There’s a pad of scratch paper on the 



116 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

library table. Go and get it.” Mr. Myers' 
severe features softened. 

Howard lumbered into the house for the pad 
of paper. He came back, drew a porch chair 
close to his father’s chair and opened his fountain 
pen with a flourish. 

“ Let me see. What are the names of the 
teams? When and where is the game to be, and 
at what time of day? ” 

“ I can’t say I admire either name,” he criti¬ 
cized when Howard told him. “ Now; all ready 
for dictation.” Mr. Myers was really enjoying 
being helpful to his usually disobedient son. 

“ The—ahem—Great Little Players have the 
honor to challenge the Winners’ baseball team to 
a game of baseball on the afternoon of Thursday, 
August twenty-fourth, at half-past two o’clock 
on the ball ground directly in the rear of Lake- 
view school. A prompt response to the challenge 
will be appreciated.” 

Mr. Myers knew a great deal more about the 
banking business than he did about baseball. 
He was not, nor had ever been, a baseball fan. 
He humored Howard’s request because he 
wanted his son to take an interest in outdoor 
sports. Howard was a good deal fonder of rid- 


A SCHEME THAT FAILED 117 

ing in an automobile than he was of running and 
playing like other boys of his own age. 

“ Oh, Pa, that’s fine” Howard praised. “ I 
guess that will make those fellows want to play 
us. I think they ought to want to, don’t you? ” 

“ I can see no reason why they should refuse. 
You say they have played against other school 
teams. One team should be considered as good 
as another. There should be no hard feeling in 
the playing of games.” 

“ That’s just what I think.” Now that he had 
obtained what he wished Howard was ready to 
go. Luckily for him his father was also ready 
to resume his book, so Howard escaped at once. 
He went into the house and up the stairs to his 
room, a smile of malicious triumph on his fat face. 
He still had another plan to carry out as soon as 
his father should leave the veranda. He was sit¬ 
ting at a point on the veranda nearest the recep¬ 
tion hall. There the telephone stood, and 
Howard was waiting his chance to use it. 

While he waited Howard copied the challenge 
on a sheet of expensive gray note paper which he 
took from his mother’s desk. He spoiled eight 
sheets of paper before he wrote one to suit him. 

No chance came to use the ’phone until after 


118 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


dinner that night. Then his father drove away 
in the roadster. His mother had been away at 
the seashore for a month and would not be home 
for two more weeks. Howard had things all to 
himself. He hustled to the telephone, looked up 
a number and called it. 

“ Hello,” he said as the person at the other end 
of the line answered. “Is this Mr. Burton?” 
Howard tried to talk in deep tones, but was not 
very successful. 

“ Yes,” boomed a big voice in return. “ This 
is Mr. Burton. Who’s talking? ” 

“ This is a friend,” Howard made cautious 
reply. “ Er—I wanted to tell you that your 
meadow right near the south end of Preston 
Avenue is all torn up. A lot of bad boys are 
playing ball there and carrying on so noisy . I 
thought you would want to know it. If I was 
you I’d send a constabule up and have him scare 
them off. It’s too bad-” 

Click! Up went the receiver, leaving Howard 
to stare open-mouthed. Mr. Burton had cut him 
off! Howard decided that “ old grouch ” Burton 
was “ awful ” mad because the boys had tom up 
the meadow. Howard didn’t care because he 
had been cut off on the telephone. He had raised 



A SCHEME THAT FAILED 119 

trouble for the boys he did not like. That satis¬ 
fied him. He took two or three clumsy skips 
about the hall, laughing and snapping his fingers. 
Crosspatch Burton would soon “get after” 
Smarty Dick Carter and his crowd. 

Ting-a-ling-a-ling! Howard had started for 
the kitchen to help himself to a third piece of cake 
since dinner. He came back to the hall and took 
up the telephone. “ Hello; hello,” called a girl’s 
voice. 

“Hello; who’s talking?” demanded Howard 
briskly. “ This is Charles J. Myers’ residence.” 

“ Is Howard Myers there? ” came the quick 
return. 

“ Yes, indeed.” Howard spoke very pom¬ 
pously. “ This is Mister Howard Myers speak¬ 
ing.” He tried to give an imitation of his father 
at the ’phone. 

“ Go ahead. There’s your party,” he heard the 
girl say. Then followed an angrily roared 
“ A-h-h-h! Just as I thought.” 

“ Get off the line,” ordered Howard rudely. 
He thought someone had suddenly cut in. 
“ What’s the matter with you? ” 

“ You’ll soon find out what’s the matter, you 
young scapegrace, if ever you call me on the 


120 JIMMY AT HAPPY, HOUSE 

’phone again and go to telling tales about other 
boys; especially fine boys who know how to mind 
their own business. Now understand I gave 
those same boys my permission to use that 
meadow for a ball ground. They’re welcome to 
it. But let me catch you or any of the young ras¬ 
cals you run with over there and I’ll see you don’t 
go there a second time. Remember that.” 
Click, and Mr. Burton was gone. 

“ Wh-wha-t, how—who,” stammered Howard. 
He looked a trifle dazed. “ How did he know 
who I was so as he could call me up? ” He still 
stood with the receiver to his ear. He angrily 
slammed it on its hook and went pouting to the 
veranda. One of his plans had failed. He had 
been so sure that Mr. Burton would “ get after ” 
Dick and his chums. 

It had not been hard for Mr. Burton to locate 
the mysterious informer. When Howard first 
spoke on the telephone he formed a shrewd suspi¬ 
cion as to his identity. He had only to question 
the operator to learn whence the call had come. 
In a small town like Lakeview such calls were 
easily traced. 

If there had been more members of the Myers 
family than himself, his father and mother. 


A SCHEME THAT FAILED 121 

Howard might not have been so lawless. His 
mother was fond of society and allowed him to do 
as he pleased. His father was too much occupied 
with business to keep the right kind of watchful 
eye on his son. He punished Howard severely 
whenever he caught him doing wrong. Howard 
had learned to keep cleverly out of his father’s 
way when in mischief, which saved him many a 
whipping. 

Howard had been forbidden to leave the Myers 
premises in the evening after seven o’clock while 
his mother was away. He could not wait until 
next day to mail the challenge. The post-office 
was closed, but he could mail the challenge in the 
box in front of the building. He also planned 
to stop at the drug store for ice-cream. He 
would walk down to the lower end of the garden 
and slip quickly through the fence. It would be 
easy to deceive the cook and the maid who had 
been ordered to watch him. His cousin Gerald 
had gone away that afternoon to spend a few 
days with another cousin. Howard was glad of 
that. He and Gerald squabbled continually. 

He managed to get away from the house un¬ 
seen and was soon hurrying toward the business 
.part of Lakeview. He did not know how long 


122 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


his father might be gone. He dropped the 
envelope into the mail-box with an “Uh!” of 
satisfaction. He then steered for the drug store. 
He had already decided on chocolate and pine¬ 
apple ice-cream. 

While he sat on a high stool at the soda foun¬ 
tain eating ice-cream with zest, he happened to 
glance out the door. He gave a frightened start 
which nearly toppled him off the stool. His 
father was just parking the gray roadster in front 
of the drug store. He dropped his spoon with a 
clang and bolted for a door at the rear of the 
store which led out to a side street. He had 
already paid for the ice-cream so the girl at the 
fountain paid no attention to his sudden flight. 

Howard set off up the street, running as he 
had not run for a long time. He soon began to 
puff and pant and grow redder and redder in the 
face, but he kept on going. He tumbled through 
a gap he had purposely made in the Myers’ fence 
and reached the middle of the garden just as his 
father drove the roadster through the gateway. 
Howard stood still among the rows of blooming 
dahlias until his father drove up to the garage. 
He was breathing loudly, but managed to say: 
“ Hello, Pa. This is a fine night, isn’t it? ” 


A SCHEME THAT FAILED 123 

“ Very fine, indeed. Be careful when you 
walk among those dahlias not to step on them,” 
his father added, not quite pleased to find 
Howard there. 

“ Oh, I’m always careful about ’em,” Howard 
replied cheerfully. He knew his father had not 
caught a glimpse of him in the drug store. He 
walked toward the house, chuckling to himself. 
“ That’s one more time I fooled Pa,” he was 
thinking. “ I guess I’m about three times as 
smart as Dick Carter. I’m smart, but I’m no 
smarty like he is.” 


CHAPTER XI 

THE BOYS WHO WEREN’T MEAN 

“ Oh, rats ’n’ bob-tailed cats! ” exclaimed Dick 
Carter disgustedly as his mother handed him a 
letter at the breakfast table next morning. “ I 
don’t want a letter from that old fatty! ” 

“ You don’t seem to prize your correspondent 
very highly, Dick,” his mother said, smiling. 
This was the second letter she had given him in 
the same handwriting. 

“ I don’t prize him at all. It’s Howard 
Myers,” was Dick’s half grumbling reply. 
“ Please, Mother, may I go up to the cave this 
morning? May I go right now? I can stop at 
Happy House for John and Jimmy and we can 
call the rest of the boys on the ’phone. I have to 
go, Mother. I’m the manager, you know, 
and-” 

“ Yes, I know.” Mrs. Carter had been re¬ 
minded two or three times a day for several weeks 
of this fact. “ Well, manager or not, come home 
124 



BOYS WHO WEREN'T MEAN 125 

for lunch. I’m still the manager of you, Dickie,” 
she slyly added. 

Dick laughed, dropped a kiss on his mother’s 
brown hair and scudded from the dining-room. 
He gave a cheery little whoop as he ran down the 
long flight of steps and raced for Happy House. 
He carried Howard’s letter, still unopened. He 
wished to wait until John and Jimmy could share 
its contents with him. 

Dick opened the gate and dashed into the yard, 
trying to look in all directions at once for his 
chums. The sound of rapidly played scales told 
him that John was doing his hour’s practice. 
Jimmy was at the upper end of his garden 
gathering lima beans. Junior was in the side 
yard playing with Tip. He would throw a stick 
as far as he could, and Tip would never fail to 
retrieve it. Each time that Tip brought back the 
stick to Junior, he was given a bit of cake from 
a slice in Junior’s hand. 

“ Oo-oo-ee,” thrilled Dick. Jimmy heard and 
almost dropped the basket of beans he was hold¬ 
ing. So did John. The scales stopped suddenly 
and John came bouncing out on the veranda. 

“ Got something.” Dick waved the letter in 
the air. 


126 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


The three collided at the steps with a bump 
which set them all laughing. They promptly 
climbed into the porch swing, their favorite seat, 
to learn what Howard Myers had to say this 
time. 

Dick read the challenge aloud, and slowly. 
Howard had not meddled with the wording of it. 
It was just as his father had dictated to him. 
Underneath, however, he had seen fit to add a few 
sentences of his own. 

“ Dictated by Mister Charles J. Myers and 
written by his son, Mister Howard Myers,” 
Dick read, then gave a scornful sniff. “ My 
father says that you don’t act very nice when you 
will play other teams but you won’t play mine. 
He says my team is as good as any other team. 
He says when you are playing games you 
shouldn’t think about being mad all the time. I 
am still very mad at you, Dick Carter, but I won’t 
think of it for a while. My father thinks you 
are all very mean. 

“ Yours, not mad at you for a while, 

“ Howard Myers.” 

“ What do you think of that? ” Dick’s blue eyes 
were showing angry sparks. “ I guess Mr. 
Myers doesn’t know how mean Howard’s been 


BOYS WHO WEREN’T MEAN 127 

to us. I’ll bet Howard never told him about 
that. He wouldn’t dare. His father tries to 
make him be square, but he can’t.” 

“ Mr. Myers is a nice man,” Jimmy said very 
soberly. He was thinking of the day when Sun¬ 
shine had caught the rat in the Myers’ chicken 
yard. Since that eventful day he had met Mr. 
Myers several times in the street. The bank 
president had always spoken to him pleasantly. 

“ Well, we don’t have to play Howard Myers’ 
team because his father says so.” John spoke 
defiantly. “ Maybe his father said a little and 
Howard made up the rest.” 

“ But Mr. Myers wrote the challenge, because 
Howard couldn’t write one like that,” Jimmy 
pointed out. “ Maybe he thinks it’s a good thing 
for Howard to be captain of a team and play ball. 
Then, of course, he’d want Howard’s team to 
play a lot of games of ball.” 

“ See here,” Dick cried, “ you don’t want the 
Winners to play his team, do you? ” His merry 
face clouded. 

“ I don’t know.” Jimmy looked doubtful. 
“ Maybe we ought to, just to show his father that 
we aren’t mean; that we aren’t thinking about 
being mad all the time.” 


128 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

“ Oh, I s’pose we could play the fatty one 
game,” Dick said grudgingly. “ If we won it, he 
wouldn’t want to play us again. If he won, he 
wouldn’t want to play us again for fear he’d lose 
the second game. He’d want always to tell 
around school that his team beat ours. I don’t 
know who’s in his team—not any of the Six B 
kids.” 

“ Nelson said he heard Howard Myers had 
some quite big fellows in his team,” declared 
John. “ They’ve been practicing over in Fred 
Bates’s yard.” 

“ Huh! I don’t know who they can be,” Dick 
said disdainfully. “ Don’t care. Let’s go and 
call up the boys and hustle ’em to the cave. If 
they don’t want to play Fatty, then it’s six 
against three, and we don’t play him. I’d just 
as soon to please you, Jimmy.” Dick had great 
respect for Jimmy’s fair ways. 

“ We’ll answer the challenge, anyhow. I’ll get 
some paper and take my fountain pen klong. 
You go to the kitchen, John, and see if Netta will 
give you some ginger cake. She made four big 
pans of it yesterday.” 

It took fully twenty minutes to get in touch 
with the missing Winners. Once they had re- 


BOYS WHO WEREN’T MEAN 129 


ceived the call it did not take them ten to reach 
the meadow. They came over the meadow fence 
from all directions. By the time they arrived 
Dick had removed the brush heap and the slatted 
square. He was careful to lay the brush beside 
the opening and his nimble fingers pulled the 
square fairly well into place, working from the 
inside. 

John had luckily run across his mother in the 
kitchen and had begged a whole ginger cake from 
her. The Winners ate the toothsome, old- 
fashioned sweet and talked long and earnestly 
about the challenge. Nelson, Ned and Charlie 
were strongly against playing Howard’s team. 
They gave in after a time. Dick had decided 
that Jimmy was in the right, so he was all for ac¬ 
cepting the challenge. Nelson was the best 
writer among them. He made the final copy of 
the challenge which John composed with Dick’s 
help. It was short and to the point: 

“ The Winners accept the challenge of the 
Great Little Players and will play them a game 
of ball on the afternoon of Thursday, August 
twenty-fourth, at half-past two, but not on the 
lot behind the school. The Winners will play on 
the meadow diamond, on Preston Avenue. It 


130 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


belongs to Mr. Elwood Burton. The Winners 
have his permission to use it. 

“ Richard Grant Carter, 
Manager of the Winners ” 

It had taken so long to call the Winners to¬ 
gether, write the challenge and finish the ginger 
cake that it was noon when they emerged from 
the cave. They scattered, trotting conscien¬ 
tiously home to luncheon, though none of them 
were hungry. Dick was so afraid of being late 
to his lunch he scampered home cross lots. 

As Jimmy and John reached their own gate 
they saw Junior outside it, hopping in a little 
circle around what looked like a large dark spot. 

“ Hey, there, Junie, what are you doing outside 
the gate? ” called out John. “ What have you 
got there? ” 

“ Whee-oo-ee! ” cheered Junior, prancing 
harder than ever. “ This are a crab, Johnny; a 
great big crab; only he don’t have any legs. I 
don’t go too close. I don’t let him pinch me.” 

“A crab!” John began to laugh. “Oh, 
Junie, that's not a crab. Look, Jimmy, it’s a 
turtle; a big one, too. How do you suppose he 
ever came here? ” 


BOYS WHO WEREN’T MEAN 131 

“ I guess he went out for a walk and got lost,” 
laughed Jimmy. “Anyhow let’s keep him. 
He’ll be fine for our circus menagerie. We can 
put some water in a rain barrel in the back yard 
and keep him there. We’ll have to cover the top 
with an open kind of cover or he’ll climb out and 
go away.” 

“ How are you, Mr. Turtle? ” John lightly 
poked the turtle with the toe of his shoe. It 
suddenly ran out its head at him and snapped. 
“ Wow! ” John drew back his foot in a hurry. 
“ Look out for him, Junie,” he warned. “ If he 
snaps you, he’ll hang on harder than a crab could. 
How are you going to get him to the back yard, 
Jimmy? ” 

Jimmy surveyed the dusty looking traveler. 
“ I’ll get the wheelbarrow and the big snow 
shovel. I’ll shovel him up and dump him on the 
barrow. Watch him, John, so he doesn’t get 
away.” Jimmy was off to the garage for Mr. 
Turtle’s moving van. He soon came rattling 
down the drive, the shovel bumping noisily 
against the barrow. 

Jimmy placed the shovel squarely in front of 
their unexpected visitor and John gently poked 
him with a stick. He was assisted to the shovel 


132 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


without much balking. While they were busy 
with Mr. Turtle old Jabez came down the 
drive. 

“ I clar fer gracious, ef that ain’t a turkle!” 
he exclaimed. “ Lots o’ turkles down south, 
chilluns; lots o’ ’em. I know’d a ole Spanish 
gemmun, once. He had one of ’em fer a pet. 
Landy, it war five times’s big’s that one. He 
done come frum South Americky, an’ he done call 
that air turkle, Bolivar. He done say, Bolivar 
wuz a big man in his country long time ago. 
This turkle he done know his name when his 
massa call him.” 

“ That was a funny name; but it sounds pretty 
good,” John said. “ I read in a natural history 
book that turtles travel hundreds of miles. This 
might be a Spanish turtle, too.” 

“ More likely he done come from de lake. I 
done seen a turkle there, onct in a while,” re¬ 
turned Jabez. He made a quick movement and 
turned the turtle over in the barrow. Junior 
laughed and clapped his hands. This pleased 
Jabez, who adored Junior. He tickled the 
turtle’s feet and teased him a little, then he turned 
him back again and went on. ^ 

“What are you going to call your turtle, 


BOYS WHO WEREN’T MEAN 133 

Junie?” Jimmy took up the handles of the 
wheelbarrow. “ He’s yours. You found him.” 

“ He are not my turkle.” Junior said “ turkle ” 
the same as Jabez. “ I don’t like him. He are 
a cross old thing.” 

“ Let me have him, then. You have Doodle, 
and Jimmy owns Sunny and Taffy. I’d like 
this fellow for a pet.” John reached down and 
touched the turtle’s tough shell as Jimmy wheeled 
the barrow up the drive. “ I’ll call him Bolivar. 
That’s a fine name. I can call him Bolly for 
short. I’ll teach him to know his name, if I 
can.” 

Jimmy made fun of “ Bolivar ” as a name for 
John’s new pet. John had his mind set on it, 
however, so Bolivar became a member of the 
Happy House menagerie. He had to stay in the 
wheelbarrow while his rain-barrel house was 
rolled into place near a corner of the back porch. 
Jimmy next took the hose and filled the barrel 
a little over half full of water from a hydrant in 
the yard. Bolivar took one more short ride on 
the snow shovel and landed in his new home with 
a splash. He dived to the bottom of the barrel 
at once. The feel of the cool water was very 
pleasant. 


134 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


John leaned far over the barrel, peering down 
at his new pet. “Here, Bolivar, Bolivar!” he 
called over and over again. Jimmy lifted Junior 
up so that he could see into the barrel, and Junior 
said, “ Come, Bulvider, Bulvider! ” But Bolivar 
stayed at the bottom of the barrel. He had yet 
to learn that he had become a turtle of real im¬ 
portance. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE PICNIC 

The three Js expected their father home on 
Monday, but he surprised them by arriving at 
Happy House in a taxicab on Saturday morning. 

“ Hurrah, hurray! ” John rejoiced as he saw 
his father step out of the taxicab and come hurry¬ 
ing up the walk. John had just finished his 
breakfast and was going out to regale Bolivar 
with a piece of bread and two salad leaves. He 
shouted toward the dining-room, over his 
shoulder: “Hi, Jimmy, Daddy’s home!” and 
dashed to meet his father, tucking Bolivar’s re¬ 
freshments in his knickers pocket as he ran. 

“ And are you going to be home two more days 
longer than you thought you could? ” he eagerly 
asked, after he had hugged his father like a young 
bear. 

“Yes; I did some hard hustling and covered 
the last of my territory yesterday so as to be home 
earlier.” Mr. Hopkins began to laugh as Junior, 
135 


136 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


Jimmy and Mrs. Hopkins came hurrying from 
the house to meet him. All three pounced upon 
him at once in an affectionate greeting. 

“ Did the expressman deliver a large package 
here this week? ” Mr. Hopkins inquired of the 
three Js in general. He was now in the dining¬ 
room eating what he called a “ real breakfast ” 
of which hot waffles and syrup were the feature. 
The happy youngsters had found they could each 
eat “ one more hot waffle ” with Father. Junior 
called them “ awfuls ” and had eaten six at the 
first breakfast. 

“ We didn’t see any,” Jimmy answered. 
“ Maybe he did, and Mother is keeping it put 
away for a surprise.” 

“No, she isn’t, though she knows what’s in the 
package. It will probably be here to-day or 
early next week. Want to know what it is? ” 

“ I don’t,” Jimmy said quickly. “ I’m so used 
to surprises I like ’em better than knowing all 
about something before it happens.” 

“ So do I,” agreed John. 

“ So are I,” Junior declared grandly as he del¬ 
uged an “ awful ” with syrup. 

“What’s become of your curiosity bumps?” 
Mr. Hopkins raised surprised brows. 


THE PICNIC 


137 


“ I guess we lost ’em somewhere around the 
house,” John chuckled softly. “ We’ll probably 
find ’em again before long.” 

“You please take me out in the car this after¬ 
noon, Daddy? ” coaxed Junior, turning an ap¬ 
pealing, syrup-streaked face to his father. 

“No, my little boy; not this afternoon. 
Daddy is going to work among his dahlias. 
We’ll go out for a ride this evening after dinner. 
You may come and help me pick a great big 
bunch of dahlias for Mother if you like.” 

“ Can’t we have the picnic down at the lake on 
Tuesday? ” John spoke eagerly. “ ’Cause on 
Thursday we’re going to play ball and we want 
you to see the game, and Saturday ”—he glanced 
inquiringly at Jimmy—“ we’ll have the circus, 
maybe. You have to go to that, too, only it’s go¬ 
ing to be on this lot.” 

“ I see. It doesn’t look as though I’d get 
much sweet rest, does it? ” teased Mr. Hopkins. 
“All kinds of happy happenings are going to 
happen at Happy House, or near it, which is 
just the same. We’ll have our picnic Tuesday.” 

“ Having a good time all the time you’re home 
*11 be better than just having a rest,” J ohn argued 
stoutly. 


138 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


“Um-m-m; maybe.” Mr. Hopkins tried to 
look doubtful, but laughed instead. The three 
Js accepted the laugh as a signal for a romp. 
They surrounded him as he started to leave the 
dining-room and made him fight his way to the 
veranda. From there they fondly escorted him 
out to see Bolivar. 

By three o’clock that afternoon the other seven 
members of the Winners had been invited to the 
picnic and had instantly accepted the invitation. 
Jimmy and John took turns at the telephone in¬ 
viting their chums. “ Be at Happy House at 
nine o’clock Tuesday morning, and tell your folks 
you won’t be home until it’s almost dark,” were 
the pleasant instructions the brothers gave out. 

On Monday morning the express package 
came. It was a gaily striped tent of fairly good 
size. Mr. Hopkins had heard so many rumors 
of the coming circus, he knew the youngsters 
would prize this treasure. He also bought it 
with intent to take it along to the picnic to use 
as a dressing tent. 

“ You don’t have to come to Happy House in 
your bathing suits,” the two Js proudly told their 
guests. “ My father is going to take a tent along 
for us. Just bring your bathing suits with you, 


THE PICNIC 139 

but not anything to eat. We’ll have all the 
things to eat for you.” 

John and Jimmy could hardly believe their 
good fortune when first they saw the tent. They 
had been wondering if they could make one of 
poles and sheets that would do for a side-show. 
The main performance was to be in the open air; 
so was the menagerie. They wished to charge 
one cent extra for the side-show. This could 
not be done unless the features were under cover. 
It seemed as though Daddy always did nice 
things for them at exactly the right time. 

Tuesday morning came at last, sparkling and 
sunny with a light flutter of breeze. Junior was 
first awake at Happy House. It was only a 
little past five o’clock, but he sat up in bed and 
hailed the day with such a loud burst of song he 
woke everyone else up. Mrs. Hopkins said that, 
for once, it was a good thing. 

Mr. Hopkins had hired a light truck on which 
to put the tent, a canoe which he owned and the 
three heavy hampers of eatables. He drove the 
truck and Mrs. Hopkins the roadster. Ray¬ 
mond, Dick, Merritt and Ned Blake rode with 
her and Junior and Netta in the automobile. 
Jimmy, John, Nelson, George and Charlie New- 


140 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

ton stowed themselves gleefully into the truck. 
Junior sat beside his mother, his boat, lighthouse 
and sand pail with a new shovel stacked in front 
of him. This time he was truly going to sail his 
boat. 

The picnickers chose a place on the sandy shore 
of the lake not far from the springboard. They 
were in the gayest of high spirits as they left 
Happy House, ready and eager for a long day’s 
pleasure. They were going to have their swim 
before lunch. After that they were going to 
strike the tent and take a ride farther along Lake- 
view boulevard to a part of the lake where there 
was a small shallow inlet. There Junior could 
go swimming and wade about after his boat. 
There the larger boys could go wading, if they 
liked, and take turns paddling the canoe. A 
grassy field near by afforded a good place to 
practice playing catch. 

Just at sunset they were going to make a fire 
and roast com, potatoes and eggs. They would 
make coffee, too, and try cooking bacon over the 
blaze on sharp sticks. In the delightful cool of 
the evening when the dark was beginning to 
gather they were to break camp and go home. 

Mr. Hopkins drove the truck as near to the 


THE PICNIC 141 

lake shore as he could. The jubilant load of boys 
speedily had the canoe and tent out of it and 
down on the sandy beach. They came hurrying 
back for the hampers and their bathing suits. 
These they had made into one bundle. The tent 
was put up under Mr. Hopkins’ directions. 
Then a great sorting of bathing suits began. 

“ Put your shoes and stockings on the sand 
inside the tent and pile the rest of your clothing 
over them, boys,” he advised. “ Every boy keep 
to his own spot and keep clear of his neighbor’s 
clothes. When you’re ready for your dip come 
out of the tent; don’t crowd it. Please don’t go 
into the water until I am ready to be with you. 
I’ll be a little behind you for I’m going to take 
the canoe and make a few soundings.” 

The Winners were only too pleased to obey 
Mr. Hopkins to the letter. He had already 
climbed high in their opinion. They prepared 
for their swim with happy zest and came whoop¬ 
ing out of the tent like a band of Indians. They 
sat down cross-legged in a merry row on the 
shore to wait for him. 

Junior was allowed to put on his bathing suit, 
but had been told he could not go into the water 
with the boys. Mrs. Hopkins was too wise to let 


142 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


him run loose, however. She and Netta had con¬ 
trived a safety belt to go round his waist. To 
this had been attached a long halter of thin tough 
rope. She had decided that this was the surest 
means of keeping track of him while they were 
at the springboard. When they reached the inlet 
Junior might then come into his glory and run 
free. The halter did not worry him much. His 
mother took charge of his boat temporarily, so 
he set up his lighthouse and dug quite a ditch 
around it with his shovel. He looked like a stray 
bit of golden sunshine dressed in a patch of blue 
sky in his bright blue suit. Every once in a 
while he would run beyond his tether and sit down 
on the sand with a jerk. This made him laugh* 
and he did it over and over again purposely. 

John and Jimmy were both at a high pitch of 
excitement over actually going swimming in the 
lake at last. Mr. Hopkins had found the water 
all of twelve feet deep at the end of the spring¬ 
board and at least five near shore. He was a 
clever diver and a strong swimmer and he showed 
the youngsters a fascinating stroke which even 
John and Jimmy found new. He joined 
heartily in a game of water tag and raced with 
anyone of the lads who challenged him. He kept 


THE PICNIC 


143 


a starboard eye on his flock, but did not spoil their 
pleasure by giving orders which might hurt their 
boyish feelings or confuse them into losing the 
proper poise of the swimmer. 

“ You and John are dandy swimmers/’ praised 
Nelson after Jimmy had twice beaten him at rac¬ 
ing. “ I guess you could beat Dick. Hoo-oo! ” 
Nelson cried through his hands. “ Come on 
over, Dick. Try a race with Jimmy.” 

“ All right.” Dick swam “ doggie ” to where 
the two boys floated. He had been farther out 
in the lake than they. He now swam shoreward. 
Before he reached his chums his keen eyes had 
caught sight of a bright blue car back on the 
boulevard. From among the trees just beyond 
the strip of beach a familiar figure was advanc¬ 
ing. It was Howard Myers dressed in his very 
best. 

“ Now why does he have to come here? ” Dick 
muttered disgustedly. “ I s’pose he wants us to 
see him all dressed up.” 

Howard continued to come jauntily forward. 
He was wearing an expensive fawn-colored 
knickerbocker suit, with a round hat of the same 
material. Even his ties and heavy silk stockings 
were of the same delicate shade. 


144 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


“ See here, Carter, I want to talk to you.” 
He came fairly close to the lake’s edge. “ I have 
to; it’s about my team.” He expanded his chest 
and tried to appear businesslike. “ I’ve been 
looking for you all morning.” 

“ Come along with me. Let’s see what he 
wants,” Dick said in low tones to Nelson and 
Jimmy. He did not answer Howard except by 
swimming toward him. 

At this point Fred Bates came running down 
to the shore. “ Gerald says get a hustle on, or he 
won’t wait for you,” was Fred’s message. 

“ Tell Gerald he’s a sorehead, and to go right 
along,” Howard retorted. “ I’m the captain of 
the Great Little Players and I have to see this 
kid—er—Carter, I should say.” 

By this time Dick, Nelson and Jimmy had 
reached the shore. Dick came out of the water 
very reluctantly. Jimmy and Nelson followed 
him, looking hardly more pleased. 

“ Tell me what you want,” Dick began un¬ 
graciously. “ This is a swimming party. Mr. 
and Mrs. Hopkins made it for us, and I don’t 
want to talk about baseball just now.” 

“ I don’t care anything about your old swim¬ 
ming party.” Howard began to bristle. “ I 


THE PICNIC 145 

can stand here if I want to. You don’t own this 
lake; neither does Mr. Hopkins.” 

“ Certainly we can stand here,” loudly echoed 
Fred Bates. “ I’ll tell Gerald to go on, then 
come back here again. I think I’d like to stay 
around for a while.” He made a derisive face at 
Dick. 

“ Hurry up, and tell him.” Howard had just 
thought of something he could do to annoy the 
swimming party. Fred galloped off toward the 
blue car. Howard turned again to Dick. “ I 
got your answer to my challenge,” he said crossly. 
“ You’ll have to play us on the school lot. I’m 
not allowed to go into old Burton’s meadow.” 

“ You’re not? ” Dick exclaimed. “ Why-” 

He stopped short. 

“ None of your business why,” snapped 
Howard. “ I’m not. That’s all. My father 
wants my team to play your team. He—he— 
would like to see me play ball, but ”—Howard 
twisted uneasily—“hut not on old Burton’s 
ground.” 

“ Would your father come to the game if we 
played you on the lot? ” Jimmy broke in bluntly. 

“ Is your father mad at Mr. Burton for some¬ 
thing? ” Nelson asked, giving Howard a suspi- 



146 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


cious look. “ Is that why he won’t let you? ” 
Nelson, as well as Dick and Jimmy, had taken it 
for granted that Howard’s father had forbidden 
him to set foot in the meadow. 

“ Go and ask him,” Howard laughed dis¬ 
agreeably. He knew that none of the three boys 
would do it. “ My father might come to the 
game unless he was too busy in the bank.” 
Howard was sure his father would be “ too busy.” 
He was dealing dishonestly with the boys and he 
thought it was funny. 

Dick stared at the fat boy, a displeased pucker 
between his brows. Jimmy and Nelson looked 
like two solemn young owls. 

“ I’ll tell you what I’ll do, Myers,” Dick said 
at last in his most grown-up tone. “ I’ll ask the 
other fellows and see what they say. If they 
don’t want to play on the school lot, then there 
won’t be any game. If you will wait around 
here ’bout ten minutes, I’ll give you our answer.” 

“ Oh, very well,” Howard carelessly waved a 
plump hand. He had a ruby ring on the third 
finger which he wished to show off. “ I’m going 
to be here for quite a while, anyway. Take your 
time.” 

* Three disgusted boys hustled back into the 


THE PICNIC 


147 


water and swam for the springboard. Their 
companions were diving from it, one after 
another. Dick waited until the last one had come 
to the surface of the water, then marshalled them 
together for a hasty decision. 

Meanwhile Howard had gone up to Mr. 
Riley’s stand to see Mr. Riley. The old man 
had a rowboat which he often used for fishing. 
He kept it tied to a post at the lake’s edge, and 
directly below his shack. It was broad and squat 
and needed repainting, but it did not leak. Mr. 
Riley sometimes rented it for forty cents an hour, 
but he would never rent it to Howard. This 
morning Howard had made up his mind to have 
it. He coaxed and coaxed for it. Finally he 
offered Mr. Riley a whole dollar for an hour’s 
use of the boat, and the old man gave in to 
him. 

“ You let me go ’n’ untie it,” Mr. Riley ordered 
as Howard left the shack. “ I’ll see then you 
git started out jest right.” 

“ I’ve got to see some kids first. Wait till I 
come back,” Howard called over one shoulder. 
The first sight he met as he came from the shack 
was a little group of boys drawn up on the shore. 
He swaggered over to the group, hands in his 


148 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

pockets. “ It’s more’n ten minutes,” he said 
only half civilly. “ How about it? ” 

“ We’ll play you on the school lot,” Dick said 
crisply, “ on Thursday afternoon at half-past 
two. Does Alfred Harding suit you for an 
umpire? ” 

“ No siree. My cousin Gerald is going to be 
umpire. He knows all about baseball. Alfred 
Harding’s a back number beside Gerald.” 

For a minute it looked as though the Winners 
were going to send up a united and angry protest. 

“ It’s not your place-” began Nelson. 

“ Who said you could-” 

“ Oh, go ahead, have your cousin for umpire,” 
Dick raised his voice above the angry murmur. 
“No matter what you do, the Winners will beat 
you anyway. Come on, fellows.” He turned 
and ran into the water with a defiant little yell 
which his comrades echoed as they followed him. 

Howard did not enjoy this scornful treatment. 
He went back to Mr. Riley in a very bad humor. 
He dared not behave crossly to the old man or 
he would not get the boat. Fred was waiting at 
the stand for him. The two boys got into the 
boat and rowed away from shore, Mr. Riley 
shouting directions after them. 


149 


THE PICNIC 

Howard made for the part of the water the 
swimming party were using. “ We’ll keep the 
boat right out at the end of the board and spoil 
those fresh kids’ fun,” he told Fred. “We can 
row around and around there and they can’t stop 
us, but we can stop them. I don’t care if Mr. 
Hopkins is with ’em. Who’s he, anyway? ” 

It was a good thing for the swimmers that they 
had had their swim almost out when Howard 
appeared. The addition of the rowboat in the 
near neighborhood of the springboard was any¬ 
thing but pleasant. “ Steady, boys,” had been 
Mr. Hopkins’ quiet advice when he saw through 
Howard’s maneuver. “ Don’t dive within ten 
feet of that boat. We want no accidents, either 
to you or those boys in the boat.” 

“ He’s an awful mean one, isn’t he? ” Dick 
said hotly as he watched Howard trying to block 
Nelson’s way for a dive. The fat boy and Fred 
were laughing loudly as though at something very 
funny. “ I wish we’d said we wouldn’t play 
him.” 

“ I wish Fred Bates would splash Fatty’s new 
suit,” returned Charlie Merritt vengefully. 
“ He throws the water way up every time his oar 
hits the lake. He can’t row.” 


150 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


Right in the midst of Howard’s wonderful time 
Mrs. Hopkins called from the shore: “ Come, 
boys. It’s almost noon. Lunch will be ready 
by the time you are ready for it.” Howard’s face 
fell as he saw the boys at once head for shore. 
He had just nicely started his fun. He turned 
peevishly on Fred who was bawling, “ Ha, ha, 
ha! ” and sending up jets and little fountains of 
water with the oars. 

“ What’s the matter with you? ” he scolded. 
“ Cut out that water slopping. You’ve splashed 
my new suit in three or four places. Pull steady 
now. I’m going for a real row.” Howard re¬ 
solved to show those on shore his skill in rowing. 
When he saw that no one was watching him he 
grew grumpier than before. “ They’re going to 
eat,” he informed Fred sulkily. He could see 
Mrs. Hopkins beginning to unpack the hampers 
and it made him hungry. He had spent every 
cent in his pockets for the boat. Now he 
could not buy even a penny chocolate. The 
two boys rowed on for a little without speak¬ 
ing. 

“ Wish those stingies would give us something 
to eat,” grumbled Fred. “ Come on to shore. 
I’m going home. My mother baked a big cocoa- 


THE PICNIC 


151 


nut cake yesterday, and I’m going to get all I can 
of it.” 

“ I guess I’ll go home with you,” Howard said. 
He looked at his wrist watch. “ It’s an hour 
since we took this boat. Riley’ll charge me more 
if we don’t hurry.” 

The oarsmen were within a few feet of the 
shore when a line of hoys in knickers, blouses and 
canvas sports shoes emerged from the tent. The 
luncheon was spread on a square white cloth 
under a giant oak. Mrs. Hopkins and Netta 
were putting the last touches to it. 

“Gee, but that looks great!” Howard 
smacked his lips. “ Now you sit still, Fred, till 
I get out,” he ordered. “ I’ll jump ashore and 
ground the boat.” He rose rather clumsily from 
the seat. With the help of an oar he drove the 
boat to shore. “ Now,” he said, and made what 
he thought was a very clever leap to land. 

The jarring he gave the boat loosened it from 
its insecure mooring. It parted from the shore 
just as Howard jumped. With a startled 
“ Har-r-r-r,” Howard missed his footing and sat 
down backwards in the lake. He appeared to 
fold together and sank slowly into the water, his 
head and feet disappearing in the same instant. 


152 JIMMY, AT HAPPY HOUSE 


There were plenty of persons to see him this 
time. Fred, who was slim and wiry, made shore 
successfully, whooping and laughing. “ Here, 
give us your hand,” he yelled. Howard, blow¬ 
ing and puffing like a porpoise, struck angrily at 
the extended hand. He had managed to right 
himself and gain the shore. His face was red as 
a beet. He was so angry he could not talk. 

“You—you—you—make me sick,” he gurgled. 
“ Don’t you laugh at me.” He turned fiercely 
on Fred. “ This is my best suit. It cost pretty 
near a hundred dollars. Go tell Riley I’m done 
with his no-good boat. I’m going home. I’ll 
catch it if my father sees me like this.” Howard 
sloshed along the sand. His round cloth hat was 
gone, a slimy green leaf stuck to one fat cheek 
and a long green spray of waterweed twined 
around one silk stocking. 

Suddenly, from the picnic ground a wild yell 
rose. The Winners had managed to keep back 
their mirth until they saw that Howard was 
safely out of the water. They could not help 
laughing at his mishap. He had come down to 
the lake determined to make trouble for the boys. 
The only person for whom he had successfully 
made trouble was himself. 


CHAPTER XIII 


PROVING THEIR METTLE 

After Howard angrily took himself dripping 
home the picnic party had no more disturbing 
interruptions. After lunch, which was just the 
kind of spread the boys most wanted, they all 
turned in and built a sand village for Junior. 
He had been such a good boy while the others 
were in swimming that Dick said he deserved it. 
The sand was yellow and not so dry as that of the 
seashore. The boys had to make round mounds 
for houses, but they laid the sand village out in 
streets with a public square in the middle and 
heaped up large mounds for public buildings. 

Junior was so entranced with this new treasure 
that he bated to leave it when it came time for 
the party to move on to the inlet. It was the 
first time he had ever owned a whole village and 
he was anxious to cling to it. He soon forgot it 
after he reached the inlet. Here he was allowed 
to go in swimming and sail his boat on “ lots of 
water.” Though the Winners had had a long 
153 


154. JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


swim that morning, they were just as eager as he 
to go water-paddling in the inlet’s clear, shallow 
ripples. Mr. Hopkins launched the light canoe 
and they took turns navigating the inlet in it. 
Later they went up on an open grassy space 
above the shore and practiced catching and pitch¬ 
ing. Mrs. Hopkins and Netta made them a big 
pail of lemonade with plenty of fruit juice, and 
ice in it. The ice had been brought from home 
wrapped in canvas. Mr. Hopkins served lemon¬ 
ade and advice at the same time as he watched 
the youngsters’ clever work. 

While it was yet light the one-day campers 
kindled their fire and roasted the eggs, com and 
potatoes. More or less bacon fell into the fire 
until the young cooks caught the knack of mak¬ 
ing the strips stay where they were put. They 
all said it was the finest meal they had ever eaten 
and planned another picnic to the lake which was 
to be held in the fall when Mr. Hopkins should 
be at home for a few days. 

The picnic outfit of one truck and one roadster, 
freighted with singing, laughing youngsters, 
rolled home in the cool of the evening when the 
first purple-gray shadows of dusk had begun to 
fall. Each boy was carried to his own gate. 


PROVING THEIR METTLE 155 

The truck was then run up on the Hopkins’ drive 
to be returned to the owner the next morning. 

Next day was full of action for the Winners. 
They gathered at the cave before nine in the 
morning and practiced batting and base-running. 
Jimmy pitched every kind of ball he knew how 
to deliver. As Dick said: “ We’ve got to know 
how to hit all kinds of curves.” Not one of the 
team wanted Gerald Jones for umpire. It now 
became Dick’s unpleasant duty to explain mat¬ 
ters to Alfred Harding. He had already asked 
Alfred to be umpire. 

The young man only laughed and pinched 
Dick’s ear when Dick went to him with the griev¬ 
ance. “ Don’t worry about that, Dickie. My 
feelings aren’t hurt. I’ll come round to see the 
game, anyhow. You may need me. I under¬ 
stand Myers has shaken the little Six B team 
and picked one up of larger boys; not schoolboys. 
What I’d like to see the Winners do is whitewash 
him.” 

" We’ll do that. See if we don’t,” Dick said 
grimly. “ It’ll be a good beat too, for he’s hav¬ 
ing his own way about the lot and the umpire. 
The Winners aren’t having theirs about any¬ 
thing, ’cept we’ll beat the Great Little Players.” 


156 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


The lot where the game was to take place was 
nearest Dick’s home. The Winners met at the 
hardware store at two o’clock on Thursday after¬ 
noon and walked to the diamond in a body. 

“ Oh, gee, look at the crowd! ” exclaimed Ned 
Blake as they neared the lot. 

At least a hundred persons were scattered in 
groups at the edge of the lot. While the specta¬ 
tors were mostly boys, there was a sprinkling of 
men among them and a few girls. The Seven A 
boys were there, full force. 

“Never mind the crowd!” cried Nelson. 
“ Look at Myers’ team! ” His voice carried his 
amazement. “ Those fellows are great, big 
guys!” 

“ Whe-w-w! ” whistled Dick as he made a 
quick survey of Howard’s team. “ I knew Fred 
Bates and Wallace Gray were in it. But those 
three tall kids—why, they’re the ones I saw that 
day when we were in the cave and they came over 
to the meadow! ” 

“ Are they the ones? ” Charlie Newton’s eyes 
opened wide. “Why, they don’t go to school. 
They’re mill boys.” 

“ Yes, and those other three fellows live at 
Glenrock. That’s two whole miles from Lake- 


PROVING THEIR METTLE 157 

view. That’s a fine team, I must say,” added 
Raymond Alden disdainfully. 

Howard’s players were at the left hand side of 
the lot, gathered about his cousin, Gerald Jones. 
For once he was out of the blue car, though it 
was parked at the edge of the lot. He was giv¬ 
ing the team some loud advice. His right arm 
kept time with what he was saying. 

The Great Little Players wore khaki trousers, 
white blouses, tan stockings and sneakers. Their 
caps were gay affairs of striped red and blue. 
Howard wore khaki-colored knickers of expen¬ 
sive cloth with a cap of the same material. His 
blouse was of white silk and his sports shoes were 
of fine quality. 

As Dick’s team came forward a boy in the 
crowd started a lively cheer. “ ’Rah for the Win¬ 
ners ! ’Rah for our school team! ” he burst forth. 
The cheer was repeated, and grew louder. The 
Lakeview boys did not regard Howard’s team 
with favor. The Seven A boys kept up the cheer¬ 
ing on purpose to tantalize Howard. 

Jimmy and John had not been on the lot be¬ 
fore. The diamond was worn smooth from con¬ 
stant use, but they liked the meadow best. They 
were both keeping a bright lookout for their fa- 


158 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

ther. He had promised that he and their mother 
would drive over in the car and watch the game 
from it, provided they could find a good place to 
park the machine. 

The Great Little Players had been the chal¬ 
lenging team. They should have shown the 
Winners a little courtesy. They did nothing of 
the kind. They surrounded Gerald and Howard 
and argued loudly, or strolled about among the 
spectators. This last was a violation of baseball 
rules. There were no players’ benches so the 
Winners drew off to one side of the home plate 
opposite to the other team. They were careful 
to keep the required distance from the plate. 
They intended to follow the rules of the game. 

Just before half-past two Mr. and Mrs. Hop¬ 
kins arrived in the roadster. Alfred Harding 
also appeared in company with the young man 
who had been with Mr. Burton on the day when 
he had discovered the cave. 

It was twenty-five minutes of three when Ger¬ 
ald Jones swaggered over to the Winners and 
said: “Ready to play ball. You kids first at 
the bat.” Howard was now walking impor¬ 
tantly about the diamond placing his men to suit 
him. 


PROVING THEIR METTLE 159 


“Humph!” Dick said scornfully to John. 
“ He acts as though we weren’t anybody.” 

“ The Great Little Players look more like the 
Great Big Giants,” John returned with a soft 
chuckle. 

“ Well, well, how about it? ” Gerald spoke im¬ 
patiently. “ Come along.” 

“ Yes, you’ll have to hurry, too, Mr. Umpire, 
and get the game started,” retorted Dick pleas¬ 
antly. “ It’s after two-thirty. The Winners like 
to start on time.” 

“You only think you’re saying something,” 
Gerald flung back. He flushed, nevertheless, 
and walked away. 

Ten minutes more went by before the game 
was really started. It began with a loud round of 
applause as Nelson White went to bat. Nelson 
was a favorite among the Lakeview boys. He 
made a fair hit which carried him safely to first 
base. Merritt was next called and distinguished 
himself. He batted the first ball pitched and 
sent it sailing far over toward left field. He 
made third base and Nelson made a run. One 
of the Glenrock boys was pitcher. He used 
a good deal of strength in pitching, but not much 
skill. The Winners found the balls he sent far 


160 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


easier to hit than were the ones Jimmy was so 
clever at sending. At the end of the inning the 
Winners had scored three runs. Their rivals had 
made two errors. 

The Great Little Players then came to bat and 
made no such showing. Their team was made up 
of boys from thirteen to sixteen years of age. 
They played poorly because they did not work 
together. As captain, Howard only made mat¬ 
ters worse. He continually confused them by 
shouting at them to do this or that, and grumbled 
at them when they were struck out. They played 
about as well as might have been expected, con¬ 
sidering they had had little practice. Howard 
thought they could whitewash Dick’s team simply 
because they were larger boys. 

At the end of the third inning the Winners 
had piled up quite a score while the other team 
had done very little. Howard called his team off 
to one side for a private talk in which Gerald 
Jones joined. The ten boys stood with their 
heads together for ten minutes while the Winners 
patiently waited to resume play and the impa¬ 
tient fans hurled remarks of “ Play ball! ” “ At¬ 
taboy!” “ Back to the diamond!” Alfred 
Harding saw the drift of matters and half de- 


PROVING THEIR METTLE 161 

cided to interfere. He did not, however, be¬ 
lieving the Winners to be plucky enough to hold 
their own. 

With Fred Bates at the bat at the beginning 
of the fourth inning a new and unpleasant state 
of affairs began. Gerald Jones interrupted the 
game to find fault with Jimmy. “ You’re out of 
position,” he shouted at Jimmy. “ You keep 
moving out of position all the time. I know. 
I’ve got your number.” 

Jimmy knew that he was not out of position at 
all. He stolidly pitched the next ball without 
having moved an inch. Neither did he answer 
the umpire’s unjust accusation. Gerald saw he 
would gain nothing in that direction so he next 
accused Dick of interfering with the batter. 
Dick, Jimmy and John had studied a baseball 
guide which Mr. Hopkins had sent them. Dick 
quoted from the guide the exact position of the 
catcher. He ended with: “ Say, what’s the mat¬ 
ter with you? Play ball.” Gerald scowled 
fiercely, but ordered the game resumed. 

Nelson’s fielding was next attacked. Gerald 
claimed that Nelson did not catch a ball around 
which his hands closed near the ground. The 
tricky umpire ruled it safe. He claimed that Nel- 


162 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


son had stooped and grabbed it like a flash after 
it struck the field. As the inning continued to 
be played Gerald grew more and more unfair to 
the Winners and more partial to Howard’s team. 
He awarded a stolen base to Wallace Gray after 
Merritt had touched him out with the ball. He 
allowed his friends to steal bases and never 
called one of them out. He claimed it was 
fair enough, and only intended to “ rattle you 
kids.” 

The Winners found themselves playing against 
a team of such dishonest methods they hated to 
go on playing against them. They kept dog¬ 
gedly at it, however, playing their honest best 
and piling up their score. 

Some of the watchers of the game grew dis¬ 
gusted after the Great Little Players had begun 
to show their true colors. These left the field. 
About half of the crowd stayed on, curious to 
see the end of the game, and admiring and en¬ 
couraging the Winners’ stubborn grit. The 
Seven A boys amused themselves by jeering and 
even hissing Gerald Jones. Every time he raised 
his voice, his shouted remarks to the players met 
with hisses and groans. This made him so furi¬ 
ously angry that he thought he would show 


PROVING THEIR METTLE 163 

“ those freshies ” that he was umpire and would 
do as he pleased. He was out of temper with 
Howard’s “ joke of a team ” and with Howard, 
too. While he addressed Jimmy as “ Hey, you,” 
and Dick as “ skinny ” and “ freckle-phiz,” he 
called Howard “ You big fat calf.” 

“ Gracious, I’m glad this game’s pretty nearly 
over,” murmured Dick in Jimmy’s ear, as the 
team stood ready for the first half of the eighth 
inning. “ We’ve more’n whitewashed ’em.” 

“ Glad of it, but no more games like this for 
me.” Jimmy’s blue eyes flashed. He was won¬ 
dering what his father and mother would think of 
such a queer game. 

Howard’s team were growing tired of being 
“ bossed,” first by Gerald, then by Howard. 
They had played badly and they were smarting 
at being jeered at by the fans. They were ready 
to desert the game at a moment’s notice. 

The inning began and two Great Little Play¬ 
ers were quickly put out. Howard came next to 
the bat. He braced his feet, threw back his head 
and flourished the bat as though sure of making 
a wonderful hit. His first attempt at the ball 
was a failure. His second—he missed the ball 
again, but the ball did not miss him. He made 


164 JIMMY, AT HAPPY, HOUSE 

a sidewise movement with the bat as Jimmy de¬ 
livered one of his usual snappy balls. Whack! 
the ball struck Howard squarely on the bridge 
of the nose. 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE END OF THE GAME 

“ Ow-ow-w-w-w-wow-ow! ” He flung the 
bat from him and clapped both hands to his in¬ 
jured nose. The bat struck Gerald on the ankle. 
This did not sweeten his temper. Howard began 
hopping around, crying and sobbing like a small 
child. The harder he hopped, the louder grew his 
howls. 

“ Oh, cut out that bawling! ” exclaimed Ger¬ 
ald. “ You’re not killed.” 

“ Oh, I am, too! My n-n-nose i-s br-ro-oken! ” 
wailed Howard, between sobs and gurgles. 
“ Ca-1-1 the g-game. I can’t—play—any— 
more.” 

“ Game! ” roared Gerald in his crossest tones. 

In spite of Howard’s sudden misfortune the 
Winners stuck to their positions. Their captain 
had not called them to the home plate. As 
catcher Dick was near Howard. He was having 
a hard time to keep a sober face. He was sorry 
for Howard, but oh, how he wanted to laugh. 

165 


166 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


The instant Gerald called “ Game ” the Win¬ 
ners hurried forward. The Seven A boys and 
other Lakeview schoolmates drew near the plate 
to see what had happened. Gerald flew at the 
Seven A boys like a hornet and shooed them away 
from the plate. “ You sassies have a lot of nerve 
to come over here/’ he raged as he made wild 
passes at them. They merely ran away, laughing. 

The three mill boys, Fred and Wallace now 
added themselves to the group about Howard. 
The Glenrock boys had seized the opportunity 
and vanished. For the first time in his life How¬ 
ard was a center of attraction. His bruised and 
rapidly swelling nose demanded sympathy, and 
Howard received plenty of it. His nose was not 
bleeding, and the first severe pain had subsided 
to a dull ache. He still whimpered and snuffled 
into a large white handkerchief which he kept 
over his face. He answered the boys’ kindly re¬ 
peated questions, “ Does it hurt much yet? ” 
“ Do you feel better? ” only by a faint nod or a 
groan. When Jimmy said sincerely, “ I’m sorry 
as anything the ball hit you. ’Course you know I 
didn’t mean it to,” Howard gave an angry 
“ Huh! ” and waved Jimmy away from him. 

Just then Alfred Harding and Mr. Burton’s 


THE END OF THE GAME 167 

friend came up to the circle around Howard. 
u Well, Dick,” Alfred said pleasantly, “ the 
Winners certainly played a fine game.” He 
glanced at Howard, but without sympathy. He 
was so disgusted with the unfairness shown by 
Howard and his team, he could not honestly say 
a c >ling word to the fat boy. 



“ N We tried to, Alfred,” Dick replied with 
meaning. He gave the young man a quick, 
bright glance which Alfred understood. 

“ The Winners were so far ahead of the other 
team at the beginning of the eighth inning you 
could have called ‘ Game 9 then, if you had cared 
to do so. Here’s your score. I thought you’d 
like me to keep one.” 

“ Oh, thank you. You’re a good pal, Alfred.” 
Dick beamed his gratitude. “ Here’s my score. I 
kept it for the team. Let’s see if we have ’em just 
alike.” 

The crowd of boys forgot Howard and turned 
their attention to the score-cards Dick was hold¬ 
ing. His teammates leaned over his shoulders 
from behind as he began comparing the two rec¬ 
ords aloud. Gerald had roughly called, “ Come 
on, bawl-baby! ” and made a bee-line for the blue 
car. His ankle ached and he had had enough of 


168 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


being umpire. Howard had heard him, but he 
wanted to pretend that he was still suffering 
greatly. The minute Dick began to read his 
anger rose. 

“ That’s not so. Your old score’s no good,” 
he wrathfully shouted. “ Maybe you made a few 
more runs than we did, but nothing like what 
you’ve given your team.” He dropped the hand¬ 
kerchief he was still holding to his nose and tried 
to snatch the cards from Dick. 

Next minute Howard found himself being 
walked rapidly toward the edge of the lot where 
Gerald waited for him in the car. A firm, though 
not unkind, hand was at the back of his soft blouse 
collar. “ Home’s the best place for you,” a crisp 
voice advised. “ Bathe your nose with witch- 
hazel, and behave yourself well for at least ten 
minutes,—if you can.” The young man who was 
Mr. Burton’s friend turned on his heel and went 
back to the diamond. 

With Howard thus led off by the collar the 
five other members of the Great Little Players 
vanished in a hurry. The Winners were left the 
victors on the lot. 

“ I never played such a crazy game of ball be¬ 
fore,” Dick declared, “ with one team cheating 


THE END OF THE GAME 169 


every minute and our team playing fair, but let¬ 
ting ’em cheat. But we all said we’d keep on to 
the end, no matter what they did.” 

“ I’m proud of you, boys,” a voice broke in. 
Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins had come up so quietly 
no one saw them. “ You’re Winners and Great 
Little Players, too. You didn’t let anything the 
other team did keep you from scoring.” Mr. 
Plopkins patted Dick on the back. 

“ Oh, they couldn’t play well,” Nelson said 
frankly. “ We’d have beat ’em anyway if they 
had played fair. Howard Myers’ little old Six B 
team used to do better than these fellows did.” 

“We had a good game with the Seven As last 
week,” put in Merritt. “ You ought to see us 
play them.” 

While they all stood talking Jimmy introduced 
his father and mother to Alfred Harding. He, 
in turn, introduced them to his companion. He 
was a young man from Chicago, and a nephew 
of Mr. Burton’s wife. His name was Robert 
West. He was a junior at Yale College and a 
football star. The Winners thought him a very 
great person. He promised to come and see their 
next game with the Seven A boys. The A boys 
had not run far when Gerald had attempted to 


170 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

chase them off the lot. Now they were on hand 
to meet Mr. Robert West and arrange a game 
for the Thursday of the next week. 

Before the Winners left the field Mr. Hopkins 
went over to the car and came back with a large 
package. Opened, it contained nine boxes of 
candy, one for each player. The boys fell upon 
the sweets with noisy thanks and shared them 
with the A boys and the few others still present. 

Dick, John and Jimmy finally piled into the 
Hopkins’ car. 

“ Ahem! This bus goes to Happy House,” 
reminded Mrs. Hopkins, who loved to tease Dick. 
His mischievous freckled face broke into smiles. 
He knew it was near enough to dinner time to 
warrant his going straight home. 

“ I’m only going as far as the veranda and 
run home fast. I want to say something to John 
and Jimmy, and then I want to laugh as hard as 
I can.” Dick’s blue eyes were two dancing stars. 

“ All right. I’ll let you boys have the tonneau. 
It’s my turn to have the front seat, anyway.” 
She smiled gaily at Dick. 

“What is it? What is it?” John repeated 
curiously as the car started. 

“ It’s about—oh, ha, ha, ha! ” Dick hugged his 


THE END OF THE GAME 171 


knees and rocked back and forth on the edge of 
the seat. “ It’s about that first letter I got from 
Howard Myers. I wanted to laugh when he got 
hit with the ball, even if it did hurt him, and then 
he threw the bat and hit that old umpire/’ John 
and Jimmy giggled as Dick said this. It was the 
first they had heard of Gerald’s mishap. 

“ I kept biting my hand hard’s I could and 
didn’t look at Howard at all,” Dick continued. 
“ Then I thought of something about Fatty 
Myers that made me want to laugh harder. I 
stopped thinking of it as soon as I could. Now 
I’ll tell you what it was, and you’ll think it’s 
funny, too. You know he said in the letter that 
he would hand us, he, he, he, a h-h-ard wallop.” 
Dick broke into chuckles. “ He said it would 
make us cry and carry on awful; that he’d laugh 
at us and have a deep revenge. And now ”— 
Dick gave himself up to mirth again briefly— 
“ he’s the one who got the hard wallop on the 
nose. He did cry and carry on awful, and that 
made us want to laugh, even if we didn’t, right 
then. Every single thing he said would happen 
to us, happened to him.” 


CHAPTER XV 


GETTING READY EOR THE CIRCUS 

“ We’ll have to hurry like everything if we 
have the circus while Daddy’s home,” Jimmy said 
to Dick the next morning. Now that the ball 
game which they had not wished to play was out 
of the way the circus was next to be considered. 

“ Oh, it’s easy to get up a show,” Dick re¬ 
turned confidently. “We have to have a me¬ 
nagerie, and then the part when the acrobats 
perform, and a side-show and two clowns. We 
can have singing and dancing if we know anybody 
that can sing or dance.” 

“ The chicken crates’ll be fine for the menag¬ 
erie,” planned John. “ We’ll put Sunshine in 
one and Taffy in another and Doodle in another. 
We can introduce Doodle to the audience in a 
cage and then let Junior coax him out.” 

“ I guess he’ll come out fast enough,” laughed 
Jimmy. “ We can put Bolivar in a crate. 
That’s one more animal. Tip will have to be in 
the performance.” 


172 


BEADY FOR THE CIRCUS 173 

“ Well, Sunny can be, too. You know he can 
sing,” John reminded Jimmy. “ That’ll be a good 
feature. We’ll have him for the great singing 
cat, and Taffy can be the great Angora rat 
catcher. He’s caught five rats this summer, and 
Sunny’s only caught three.” 

“ How can a cat sing? ” Dick asked unbeliev¬ 
ingly. “ They can yowl, but that’s not singing.” 

John laughed. “ Oh, Sunny can’t sing tunes, 
but when anybody else sings he can sing, too. 
Wait till you hear him.” 

“ When John first began to take music lessons 
Sunny would come into the living-room and 
me-ow all the time John was playing. After 
while when John could play pretty well he made 
up a song; the words and the tune, too, just for 
Sunny. He sang it to Sunny so many times 
that now he knows it. Every time John sings 
it, he yells right along with it,” Jimmy ex¬ 
plained. 

“ The name of the song is, * Sunny, You and 
I Will Sing,’ ” John informed Dick stoutly. 
“ He’ll sing it with me. He can’t run away for 
he’ll be in a crate.” 

“ Well, all right. What shall we call Bolivar? ” 
Dick asked for a paper and pencil which John 


174 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


brought him. He put down Sunny’s and Taffy’s 
titles of honor and looked expectantly at John. 
John was quick to think of new names. 

“ Oh, I don’t know. A real traveling snapping 
turtle, I guess; probably twelve or fourteen 
years old. Daddy said he was. Doodle can be 
the famous trained rooster.” 

“ Nelson’s folks have an old parrot,” w r as 
Dick’s next bright thought, “ and Merritt’s 
brother has a tame raccoon. They’d be fine. I’ll 
go to Whites and Merritts before lunch and ask 
the fellows if they’ll bring ’em.” 

“ We’ll bring the phonograph outdoors, but 
we ought to have a drum and a comb band,” 
Jimmy said. “ Junie has a pretty good drum. 
I can beat that and let Ray Alden take tickets. 
We’ll charge grown folks three cents and children 
a penny. We don’t want to make money, but 
there’s no fun in selling tickets for pins. If any 
children should want to come to our circus who 
couldn’t afford to pay a penny, I s’pose we ought 
to let them in.” 

“ The side yard’ll be best, back beyond the 
trees,” was Dick’s opinion. “ While I’m gone 
home to lunch I wish you’d cover a box with red 
cloth for me to stand on and holler at the crowd. 


BEADY FOR THE CIRCUS 175 

I’ll see what my father’ll let me have to make the 
circus real dandy.” 

As a manager Dick was a hustler. He made 
the rounds of his chums’ houses, got the promise 
of the parrot and the raccoon and engaged Ned 
Blake’s small brother to appear in an Indian 
costume he had worn at a kiddies’ Hallowe’en 
party. He came panting and perspiring back to 
Happy House laden with a huge green cotton 
umbrella, a megaphone, a piece of red, white and 
blue bunting and a red silk high hat which his 
father had once worn in a home talent minstrel 
show. 

“ I can nail some sticks so that they will hold 
up this umbrella when it’s open,” planned Jimmy. 
“ It will make a good top for a lemonade stand. 
We need the megaphone to talk through and the 
bunting will be fine to decorate with. Junior 
could wear the hat, maybe, when he performs 
with Doodle. It’s quite small inside, and it would 
make folks laugh to see Junie in that funny hat.” 
The three energetic circus men themselves 
laughed at the prospect. 

“ It doesn’t look as though it was going to rain 
to-day. I hope it won’t to-morrow. We’ll put 
our stuff in the garage to-night. I fixed that 


176 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

box. Mother gave me a turkey-red table-cloth 
to cover it with. Come and see it.” Jimmy 
beckoned Dick toward the garage. 

Charlie Newton and John were to be the 
clowns. Each owned a clown suit, so they were 
prepared. Dick would manage the ring and 
Jimmy the band. They begged a very large piece 
of unbleached muslin from Mrs. Hopkins and 
cut it up into pennants and banners. The three 
boys spent a busy afternoon lettering these with 
colored crayons. One fairly large, oblong ban¬ 
ner bore the cheering information, “ Circus To¬ 
day. Menagerie, Side-Show and Magnificent 
Performance. Wonderful Features. Take a 
Look at Tip the Smart Trick Dog. Two Clowns. 
Lemonade Sold on the Grounds. Adults 3 cents. 
Children 1 cent.” This banner was to be hung 
on the fence at the left of the gates. 

“ I don’t know what we can have in our side¬ 
show.” Dick stared with a deep frown at the 
striped tent rolled up in a comer of the garage. 
“We’ve such a dandy tent we ought to have 
something kind of special to go in it.” 

“ You mean like a giant or a skeleton man or a 
fat lady, don’t you? ” John asked. 

Dick nodded. “ Yep; but we couldn’t get any 


BEADY FOR THE CIRCUS 177 

real ones. We might make a fat man of George 
Sterns by stuffing him all up with feather 
pillows. I guess that’s what we’ll have to do. 
Will your mother let us have a whole lot of 
pillows? ” 

“ Oh, yes. We’ll have to make him a robe out 
of a couple of sheets and tie it around the waist 
with a cord,” returned resourceful Jimmy. “ I 
don’t think he’ll be very funny, though.” 

“ He’ll be better than no side-show at all. Only 
we can’t charge a cent extra to see him.” Dick 
proposed to be an honest showman. The others 
agreed that he was right. 

The boys moved the pile of empty chicken 
crates from one corner of the chicken park to the 
circus ground. They washed them with the hose 
and set them in the sun to dry. They hammered 
and tacked, chalked banners and signs and 
planned happily just where each attraction was 
to be placed. They covered a low, broad box with 
pink crepe paper for the fat man, hoping they 
might be able to stuff him so that he would look 
quite like a “ fatty.” 

Junior hailed the new enterprise with zest, hut 
as usual, hindered the busy showmen. He 
chalked a bright green, ragged “JUNOR” on 


178 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

the piece of cloth Dick was saving for the side¬ 
show poster. The green letters showed so plainly 
from even the other side of the cloth that Dick 
was in despair until John took the cloth to Netta 
and asked her to wash it. 

“ You want to watch what you’re doing, 
Junie,” John told Junior severely. “ You let our 
stuff alone. You don’t know what it’s for or 
how to use it.” 

“ I do know. It are for the circus. I don’t 
like you, cross Johnny. You stick out your head 
like Bulvider. I are going to stay by Jimmy.” 

Junior moved over to where Jimmy was cut¬ 
ting folds of colored paper for swinging decora¬ 
tions. Jimmy gave him a small pair of scissors 
and some blue tissue paper to cut up. Junior 
made short work of cutting up the paper, 
dropped the scissors in the grass and steered for 
a pan of flour paste that was very necessary to 
the showmen. They had made a large sign-board 
of heavy gray wrapping paper and intended to 
paste it full of colored pictures of animals which 
had come from a stack of John’s and Jimmy’s old 
toy books. 

They had not yet tackled the pasting job, so 
Junior got ahead of them. He pounced upon 


BEADY FOR THE CIRCUS 179 


the paste brush and looked about him for some¬ 
thing to paste. The pile of pictures lay beside 
the paste pan. Junior seized the first, an open- 
mouthed gorilla with a club in its hairy hand, 
wiped the dripping brush on the back of the print 
and pasted it squarely on the pale pink front of 
the fat man’s stand. He was all ready to paste 
the second print when Dick saw him, gave a hor¬ 
rified gasp and bounced to the rescue of the pale 
pink stand. “ Oh, gee! Oh, my! Just see what 
Junie’s done!” he exclaimed. “ Here, Junie, 
give me that brush. We’ll have to watch him or 
he’ll mix up everything.” 

“ It’s almost time for his nap,” John sighed. 
“ I like to have him play with us, only he pokes 
into things so.” John had to laugh a little as he 
looked at the pink stand. “ We can paste on a 
new front,” he said. “ You caught him just in 
time.” 

Mrs. Hopkins came for Junior shortly after¬ 
ward so the three boys could work, undisturbed. 
They put in a fruitful afternoon. When Dick 
went home shortly before six, the array of 
strange, but gorgeous, circus properties stored in 
the garage gave promise of wonders to come the 
next day. 


CHAPTER XVI 


Dick appeared before nine o’clock the next 
morning. He looked slightly gloomy. “ George 
says he doesn’t want to be a fat man,” was his 
greeting as he walked into the dining-room where 
John and Jimmy were lingering over their fresh, 
sticky cinnamon buns and milk. 

“ He doesn’t? ” John looked up in surprise. 
A brown sugary half circle began at his mouth 
and ended in the middle of one cheek. “ Oh, 
Netta,” he called hospitably, “ please bring a 
bun and some milk for Dick.” 

“ My mother never told me I couldn’t eat 
breakfast here, so I guess I can. It’ll be all right 
till I see her, anyhow.” Dick was soon enjoying 
buns and milk with his chums. 

“ Why won’t George be the fat man? ” asked 
Jimmy. “ I’d just as soon be him if I hadn’t so 
many things to see to.” 

“ Oh, he hates being stuffed up. He says he’ll 
walk on his hands and jump over two chairs if 
180 


“EPHO ” 


181 


you want him to. All the fellows are coming here 
this morning. Maybe Nelson will be the fatty 

Soon after Dick’s arrival Merritt appeared 
with the pet raccoon in his cage. Nelson followed 
him with the parrot’s unwieldy cage. The par¬ 
rot was large and green and yellow. It shrieked 
44 Hello, hello! ” as Nelson carried it across the 
lawn. 

John’s and Jimmy’s chums were not the only 
persons who came to Happy House that morn¬ 
ing. Celia, Uncle Jabez’ daughter, came to do 
the Hopkins’ washing. With her she brought 
Ephraim, her only son. Ephraim was a quiet¬ 
acting little boy of nine, brown in color and with 
bright brown eyes. His hair was kinky and so 
thick it stood out on his head in all directions. 
Celia brought Ephraim with her once in a while 
when she came to wash. John and Jimmy liked 
him and liked to play with him. 

44 Come on, Ephie,” called John as he raced 
across the drive with the boys. 44 We’re getting 
ready to have a circus, and maybe you can be in 
it.” 

Ephraim’s eyes glistened. He glanced up at 
his mother who said: 44 Go ’long, chile; behave 
yousself,” and scudded after the boys. 


182 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

Junior was not on hand that morning. Mr. 
Hopkins had mercifully taken him to Lakeview 
in the car. Jimmy had privately begged of his 
father: “Daddy, won’t you please take Junie 
with you in the car this morning? When he 
comes back everything will be fixed. We’re so 
busy! ” 

When Ephraim rather shyly joined the noisy 
group of youngsters Dick was busy asking Nel¬ 
son to be the fat man. “ You don’t have to be it 
long,” he pleaded. “We can close the side-show 
after the performance begins and not open it 
again. Everybody’ll know you’re stuffed and 
not want to see you more than once.” 

While he was talking to Nelson Dick happened 
to catch sight of Ephraim. He looked the little 
brown boy over from his mop of kinky hair to his 
bare feet. Dick thought he had never seen such 
a queer head of hair except in books that had 
pictures of wild men and cannibals. He had 
once seen some savages in a circus that came to 
Lakeview. They did not have hair as long as 
Ephraim’s. All of a sudden Dick became bril¬ 
liantly inspired. 

“ Say, Ephie,” he began excitedly, beckoning 
to the brown boy, “ how’d you like to be in the 


“EPHO " 


183 


show, and be the wild man? All you have to do 
is to sit in the bottom of a cage and pretend you 
can’t talk like we do. You make up talk. I’ll 
tell you how pretty soon. We paint up your face 
and hang some rings in your ears and you growl 
like anything when anyone speaks to you. You 
can have one side of the tent and the fatty can 
have the other. We’ll cover a box with green 
for your cage to be on and put grass and plants 
around the stand to make it look wild. Say, 
would you like that? ” 

“ Ah dunno. Mebbe it would be purty good. 
I’d as lief do that’s anything.” Ephraim was de¬ 
lighted at the honor, but too shy to say so. 

“ All right. You’re it, then.” Dick called 
John and set forth his new plan. He fairly bub¬ 
bled over with satisfaction. “ How do you think 
he ought to dress? ” he asked John anxiously. 

“ Oh, hardly any clothes at all,” was the off¬ 
hand reply. “ He can’t wear a blouse and pants. 
He ought to have a piece of white cloth like a 
short skirt, and not any waist.” 

“ But maybe his mother wouldn’t want him to 
dress like that. Mine wouldn’t.” Dick showed 
worry at this setback. 

“ No; Mother wouldn’t let us either,” John 


184 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

nodded. “ Let me see.” John did some hard 
thinking. “ I know what to do,” he finally said. 
“We can dress Ephie in a canvas sack, and he’ll 
look fine. He can keep on his underclothes, but 
take off his blouse and pants. We’ll cut a hole 
in the sack for his head and two for his arms. 
Gracious! He will look wild. We’ve a lot of 
sacks in the cellar.” 

He had hardly said “ cellar ” before Dick was 
gone. Dick had had permission to go into the 
Hopkins’ cellar for whatever he needed in for¬ 
warding the circus. He was soon back with two 
canvas sacks which he laid out on the grass. He 
explained what he was going to do to the others 
who were noisily enthusiastic. They laughed and 
joked with Ephraim who began to believe that 
he was a brown boy of some consequence. Nel¬ 
son decided that it would be fun to be a fatty and 
occupy the tent with the wild man. 

“ What kin’ cage you all gwine put me in? ” 
Ephraim inquired. “ Ah reckons mebbe it has to 
be a whoppin’ one.” 

“ It’s a chicken crate, but it’s good and large. 
You can’t stand up in it, but you can sit down all 
right,” Jimmy answered. “ Dick’s going to bring 
it soon as we have the tent up.” 


“EPHO ” 


185 


The crate was indeed a large one and must 
have been built for full-grown turkeys. The door 
was a tight squeeze, but Ephraim was so slim he 
managed to wriggle through the opening. With 
his unflagging energy Dick cut the holes in the 
sack and fitted the new garment over Ephraim’s 
blouse and short trousers. 

“ Now what you ought to say is 4 blub, blub, 
blub,’ and 4 gub, gub, gub,’ and 4 wagl, gagl, 
chagl ’ and things like that; just silly stuff, you 
know,” Dick instructed the brown boy. “ Then 
you have to growl like this: 4 grrr-rr-rr ’ and 
4 brr-rr-rr-br-rr,’ but blub and ub and gub are the 
best. They sound as if you didn’t know any¬ 
thing. I’ll fix you right after lunch.” He gave 
Ephraim further instructions which Ephie sol¬ 
emnly promised to follow. 

It took the boys the whole morning, working 
every minute, to set out the circus properties. 
They finished just at noon and ran home, prom¬ 
ising Jimmy to hurry back. The poster was up 
on the fence and the bright-colored stands and 
banners among the trees looked inviting. The 
ring had been marked on the open space of lawn 
which met that part given over to trees and or¬ 
namental shrubs. The instant he finished his 


186 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


lunch Jimmy hurried to find Sunshine and Taffy. 
He fed them and put them in their cages. He 
did not want to have to hunt them later. He and 
John had a hard siege with Bolivar before they 
triumphantly hoisted him from the water. As 
fast as they shoveled him up he slid back into the 
rain barrel. Altogether the menagerie boasted 
six cages. Each cage had a strip of gaily chalked 
muslin fastened around it, and about three inches 
from the top, describing the inmate in glowing 
terms. 

Doodle was badly upset at finding himself sud¬ 
denly back in a crate again. He crowed and 
“ cuh huhed ” and “ harruped ” and would not 
touch the piece of cookie Junior gave him. Sun¬ 
shine opened his pink mouth wide, yawned and 
lay calmly down in the bottom of the cage. 
Taffy rolled and played and batted a cushiony 
yellow paw through the bars at Jimmy. Bolivar 
ran his head out a few times and snapped crossly, 
then retired to the back of his cage. The raccoon 
was used to a cage and being stared at. So was 
the parrot. He sat on the edge of his seed cup 
and gobbled seed. Occasionally he said a few 
words, or laughed in a queer, hoarse voice. 

The circus was to open at two o’clock, but the 


“ EPHO ” 


187 


circusmen were all in their places by one. Every¬ 
thing was in readiness for the public, even to 
“ Epho, the Fierce Black Wild Man.” This was 
the name Dick had made up for his latest attrac¬ 
tion. Ephie was truly a sight to behold. The 
canvas sack just missed his brown knees. The 
combination of it and his heavy crop of kinky hair 
gave him a truly wild appearance. He had green 
and purple circles chalked around his legs and 
red and blue ones on his arms. He had a blue- 
linked necklace chalked about his neck and a 
three-cornered design in red on each cheek and 
another on his forehead. He had three darts 
from John’s dart board set stuck through his hair. 
Two blue glass curtain rings hung from his ears 
on red strings. Around his canvas waist he wore 
a rusty piece of chain. He scowled, growled, 
branished a tree branch and pretended to be very 
fierce. 

“ He’s worth a cent to see,” Dick declared 
proudly after they had Epho’s cage on its stand 
and Epho had climbed into it. “ Nelson looks 
all right, too.” Nelson stood on his pink stand 
looking like an immense snow man with huge, 
bulging legs and arms. 

“ I hope a crowd will come,” Jimmy said. “ I 


188 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


must go and start my band to playing a piece.” 
George, Ned and Merritt were to play on combs 
while Jimmy beat the drum. The phonograph 
was to be played while the acrobats were per¬ 
forming in the ring. 

Soon the three comb musicians were blowing 
as hard as they could on “ Marching Through 
Georgia ” as they paraded down to the gates to 
give a concert. Jimmy marched behind them 
banging the drum. He looked pleased as he spied 
a little knot of children clustered around the gate. 
They drew back a little as the boys reached the 
gate. The tallest of them, a girl of about twelve, 
asked: “ Can you get in to see the circus if you 
have just pins? ” 

“We don’t want any pins.” Jimmy shook his 
head. “ If you-” 

“ Well, then we can’t see it. Come on, you 
kids.” She turned away. 

“ Wait a minute,” Jimmy called. “ I was 
going to tell you to come in. It doesn’t matter 
about the money.” 

“ I like to pay if other people do,” replied the 
girl with a proud little toss of her black head. 
She was a pretty girl with big blue eyes and thick 
black curls. “ Would you let us be in the show? 



“EPHO " 


189 


You ought to hear us sing. My mother says 
we’re the seven singing Flanagans; we’re only 
five here, though, and two home.” 

“ We’d like to have you sing.” Jimmy smiled 
in his friendliest way. “ My brother and his cat 
are going to sing, but that’s all the singing we 
were going to have.” 

“ Oh, ho, ho! How funny to have a cat sing! ” 
A younger girl, who looked like her older sister, 
clapped her hands. “ I know it’s a nice circus.” 

“ It’s a pretty good one.” Jimmy opened the 
gate for the five children. There were four girls 
and one boy. He was not much older than 
Junior. 

Just then Raymond came down to the gate to 
take his place as ticket man. “ How de do, Mar¬ 
garet; having a good time this vacation?” he 
greeted, raising his cap. 

“ Um, pretty good. I’m going to be in the 
circus. That’ll be fun! ” Margaret was smiling 
radiantly. 

“ I’m glad you are.” Raymond smiled back 
at her. “ Margaret sings alone in school, Jimmy. 
She can sing just fine.” 

Jimmy paraded the new performers up to Dick 
who also smiled all over his face. “ This is great 


190 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


luck,” he declared. “ You can sing a song to¬ 
gether after George walks on his hands, and then 
Margaret can sing alone.” 

Jimmy had to hurry back to the band. They 
started “ Yankee Doodle ” and played it with 
such spirit that four boys paid their penny apiece 
and entered the circus grounds. After that the 
audience began to come along by twos and threes. 
Dick was amazed when his mother and a young 
lady who lived next door to the Carters came 
walking up to him. The other boys were equally 
surprised to see their mothers and sisters. The 
Seven A boys came and brought fifteen other 
boys with them. 

Jimmy had to take Merritt out of the band so 
that he might collect the money in front of the 
side-show. The performance had not yet begun 
so the crowd strolled about looking at the me¬ 
nagerie, or visiting the side-show. They bought 
all the lemonade before the real show began, and 
John had to hurry into the house and ask Netta 
if they couldn’t please have some more. John 
was tending the lemonade stand in his clown suit. 

When Dick rang a bell which announced the 
beginning of the show there were at least seventy- 
five persons on the strip of lawn reserved for the 


“EPHO” 


191 


audience. Ned Blake’s small brother opened the 
show with a tomahawk dance. He wore an In¬ 
dian costume. He flew into the ring whirling 
a tomahawk about his head. He was so little and 
he took such long steps and whooped in such a 
high, shrill voice he made the audience laugh. 
While he was dancing who should come walking 
up to the crowd but Mr. Burton, Alfred Harding 
and Robert West. Jimmy was so greatly sur¬ 
prised he almost let fall to the ground a handful 
of pennies Merritt had just given him. Mr. Bur¬ 
ton was the last person he had expected to see at 
the circus. 


CHAPTER XVII 


JUST LIKE A REAL CIRCUS 

John and Sunshine came next on the program. 
Dick roared “ Master John Hopkins and his 
Great Singing Cat ” through the megaphone. 
John ran into the ring in his clown suit. He 
bowed right and left as Dick brought a square 
box covered with orange-colored crepe paper to 
him and set Sunshine’s cage upon it. John 
leaned down toward Sunshine and said very 
loudly and clearly: “ We’re going to sing. Sun¬ 
shine.” 

Sunshine stood up and arched his back for 
John to pat him. Instead John began the song. 
He sang the w r ords to a little waltz tune he had 
composed. 

“ Sunny, you and I will sing, 

Sing up loud like everything.” 

Sunshine began to twitch his ears. He fixed 
his green eyes on John in a steady stare. As 
192 


JUST LIKE A REAL CIRCUS 193 

John sang the second line he joined in with a 
loud protesting “ Ya-a-a-a! ” 

There are to be found both cats and dogs which 
object to music, either vocal or instrumental. 
The sound of it seems to hurt their heads. Sun¬ 
shine did not like music, so he always mewed 
when John sang to him. He kept such good time 
to the singing with his sharp little “ Ya-a-as ” 
and “ me-ow-ws,” it sounded as though he were 
trying to sing, too. 

“ Sing of all the fun we know. 

Not too fast and not too slow. 

Sing of birds and butterflies, 

Sing of nice blue pretty skies; 

Sing of two fat yellow cats, 

Taffy, Sunny—they catch rats: 

Sing as hard as you can yell: 

That’s the way to sing quite well.” 

John sang the song over twice. The last time 
Sunshine not only sang “ ya-a-s ” and “ me-ow.” 
He wailed “ how-r-o-ow, mr-r-ow-w! ” The 
loud clapping and laughter at the end of the 
duet startled the big yellow puss. He gave a 
frightened sideways leap. His weight set the 
cage and stand to rocking, then over it went! 
The cage door swung open and Sunshine shot 


194 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


through it like an orange flash. Away he sped 
and vanished around a corner of the house. 

Dick trumpeted “ Master George Sterns in a 
Mar-vil-us Acrobatic Act,” hastily laid down the 
megaphone and started the phonograph. George 
wore a red sweater and his gray baseball knickers, 
red stockings and sneakers. He promenaded 
twice around the ring on his hands, turned a back 
somersault, jumped over two chairs and com¬ 
pleted his act with a very good exhibition of high 
kicking. 

The five Flanagans followed him. They 
paraded grandly into the ring, drew up in a 
straight line, with Margaret in the middle; hands 
behind their backs. “ La, la, la.” Margaret 
gave them the pitch. “ Ready,” she said briskly, 
and they burst into that old sweet Irish song, 
“ Believe me if all these endearing young 
charms.” The sister next oldest to Margaret 
could sing alto and the blending of the tuneful 
young voices was beautiful. And how they all 
sang! They opened their mouths and sang like 
a flock of canaries. 

The Irish song delighted the audience. Mr. 
Burton called out: “Encore, encore! Give us 
another Irish song.” Margaret started “ The 


JUST LIKE A REAL CIRCUS 195 

harp that once through Tara’s Halls ” and the 
musical Flanagans sang it as sweetly as they had 
the first song. 

After that Dick announced “ Master Junie 
Hopkins and Doodle, the Trained Rooster.” 
Junior was greeted with shouts of laughter as he 
sauntered into the ring behind Doodle’s cage. 
He wore a white suit, red slippers and white silk 
short socks, and—the red silk hat. Mrs. Hopkins 
had padded the inside of the hat to fit Junior’s 
head, though it tilted back a wee bit. He carried 
a long red ribbon in one hand and a square of 
sponge cake in the other. Sponge cake was 
Doodle’s favorite treat. As soon as Dick set 
Doodle’s cage on the ground Junior carefully 
lifted his hat from his head, using both hands, 
and made the audience a funny, jerky bow. 

The instant Doodle saw Junior and the cake he 
began stepping high and poking his neck for¬ 
ward. Junior waved the cake in front of the 
wooden bars several times, then opened the cage 
door. Doodle put his head out first, peered 
cautiously about and strutted out. J unior 
waved the cake before the big rooster’s eyes and 
began walking slowly backward. Doodle fol¬ 
lowed him with little, mincing steps. After 


196 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


Junior had walked him around the ring twice he 
gave him a small piece of cake. Doodle ate the 
second bite from the little boy’s hand. He 
allowed Junior to slip the ribbon over his 
neck and Junior led him up and down the 
ring, not forgetting to lure him along with more 
cake. 

Right into the middle of this interesting act 
bounced disaster. It bounced in the shape of 
Tip. Tip liked sponge cake as well as Doodle, 
and Junior was not giving him any. Tip had 
not done his act yet, but he had been having a 
glorious time barking at Sunny and Taffy and 
prancing about the raccoon’s cage. Tip was 
Doodle’s greatest trial. He ran and squawked 
whenever Tip came near the chicken yard fence. 
Tip caught sight of Junior and smelled the cake. 
He tore joyously into the ring, tangled himself 
in the red ribbon and leaped upon Junior. 
Down went the rooster trainer. His red silk hat 
dropped off his head and rolled along the ground. 
Doodle spread his wings, made a half-flying leap 
and fled for his life. Junior dropped the re¬ 
mainder of the sponge cake and Tip ate it 
greedily. 

The crowd set up a mirthful roar and the 


JUST LIKE A REAL CIRCUS 197 

circusmen had to wait for them to become quiet 
before they could proceed with the show. 

Margaret then came to the ring and sang a 
popular song. She was encored and sang an old 
Irish lullaby. Tip was then bundled into the 
ring by Jimmy to do his tricks. He opened his 
mouth and hung out his red tongue as though he 
were laughing at Doodle’s scare. Jimmy put 
him through all the clever tricks he knew; play¬ 
ing dead, counting to six, playing lame, shak¬ 
ing hands, sitting up and retrieving a rubber 
ball. 

The last number was a clown act with John 
and Charlie Newton as the actors. They 
tumbled about the ring, pretended to wrestle, 
tried to jump through a barrel hoop and fell 
down, took turns sitting in a chair that always 
collapsed the minute it was used and did other 
funny, foolish things. 

During the performance Mr. and Mrs. Hop¬ 
kins joined Mr. Burton and the two young men. 
While the clowns were doing their act, Mr. 
Hopkins came and whispered something to 
Jimmy. His face grew radiant as he listened. 
He stepped to the center of the ring just as the 
clowns ran from it and called loudly: “ Please, 


198 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


everyone, Mr. Burton wants you to stay for a 
little while. He has a surprise for you.” 

Mr. Burton had planned his surprise before he 
came to the circus. It was ready and on the 
Hopkins’ back veranda in the shape of three 
freezers of ice-cream and a generous supply of 
fancy cakes with a caterer to serve the spread. 
He had not forgotten what John and Jimmy had 
told him regarding the happiness of surprises. 
Two-thirds of the audience were children, and he 
was glad of that. 

This was a feature the circusmen had not 
counted on. They were bewildered by their good 
luck; then jubilant. Chairs from the house were 
added to those already on the veranda for the 
grown-ups. The happy boys and girls perched 
on the steps or sat on the grass. The circus lot 
was quickly deserted. Only one person re¬ 
mained on it. That person was very brown and 
very indignant. Safely locked in his cage in the 
side-show tent sat Epho, the wild man, tearful 
and forgotten. 


CHAPTER XVIII 

A DESPERATE WILD MAN 

Soon after the performance had begun Nelson 
deserted the side-show and waddled across the 
lawn to the garage, there to shed his make- 
believe flesh. Everyone had seen him as a fatty, 
so he was free to be himself again. Ephraim 
was in no such hurry to give up his role. He was 
delighted with the attention he was receiving. 
His wild costume gave him the courage to behave 
wildly. He crawled about the bottom of his cage 
on hands and knees, snarled and showed his 
strong white teeth in a pretended fierceness. He 
growled blub, blub, ub, gub, gagl, nagl, wagl 
and other savage utterances which he made up 
himself. Before the performance Dick had 
showed Epho off to those who came to see the 
wild man. Dick had fastened the cage door with 
a large old-fashioned padlock which his father 
had donated for the good of the circus. He 
would open the door of the cage and thrust his 
199 


200 JIMMY AT HAPPY. HOUSE 


arm inside. Epho would snarl and grab for the 
arm. Dick would then snatch it away, slam the 
door shut and snap the padlock. 

When his duties as ringmaster called him to 
the ring, Dick went out of the tent leaving Epho 
securely locked in the cage. Epho made no 
objection to this, even when Nelson left the tent. 
When the show was over more people would come 
to see him, was the little brown boy’s contented 
thought. He heard the Flanagans’ songs and 
the music pleased him. Once or twice, when he 
heard loud laughter, he wondered what was so 
funny. He liked the phonograph tunes, too. 
He sat and kept time to them with his head and 
hands. 

After a while he did not hear so much laughing, 
though there was still the busy hum of voices. 
Then the phonograph stopped playing. Ephraim 
got ready to play Epho again. He growled 
softly to himself as he practiced making faces. 
Still no one came. Where were Dick and Jimmy 
and John? They ought to come to him soon. 
He stopped growling and listened. The buzz of 
voices he had heard now sounded far away. No 
one wanted to see the wild man. 

“ Hi, you Dick; hi yi! ” He raised his voice 


A DESPERATE WILD MAN 201 

in a worried call. “ You done come lemme outa 
here. No more folks comm’ to see me, Ah 
reckon.” 

Ephraim waited, expecting Dick would come 
at once and release him. Dick did not appear, 
nor did any of the other boys. At that moment 
they were busy helping the caterer serve the ice¬ 
cream. 

“ Hi, you Jimmy an’ John—where is you all? 
You knows Ah cain’t get out. Yi, yi, you come 
’long open the doah! You hear me? Ah don’ 
wanta be no wiP man. Ah ain’t gwine to be it 
no more.” Ephraim beat the wooden bars of his 
cage so desperately he almost tipped the cage 
over. 

Up on the lawn Jimmy thought he heard some¬ 
one calling him. Then he thought he must have 
been mistaken. He went on serenely carrying 
plates of ice-cream to the guests on the lawn and 
veranda while poor imprisoned Ephraim kept up 
a flow of bitter complaint. 

“ Ah’s gwine yell ’n’ holler ’n’ purty near bust 
mah neck, but Ah’s gwine make that Dick ’n’ 
Jimmy ’n’ John know where Ah is. Ah ain’t 
gwine to be no wil’ man, nevah no more. That’s 
what Ah a-i-n-t! A-h-h-h-h-h a-a-i-i-n-n-n-t.” 


202 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

Ephraim began to sob. Gradually his grieving 
voice rose to a yell. “ You 1-e-m-m-e—o-ut, you 
Di-c-c-k!” He gave a long, shrill, piercing 
scream of indignant despair. 

Help was on the way, however, before that 
piercing scream rent the peaceful air. Celia had 
finished the washing, had been treated to ice¬ 
cream and cake and was ready to go home. She 
was now out on the lawn hunting for Ephie. As 
she did not find him she finally stopped Dick on 
his hurried way across the lawn to ask where her 
son was. 

“ Ephie? ” Dick cast a quick glance over the 
lawn, his eyes roving among the groups of chil¬ 
dren. He did not see Ephie’s shining brown 

face. “ Why, let me see, Ephie is-” Dick 

gave a sudden gasp of dismay. “ Why, Celia, 
he is—I’ll go and get him for you, Celia.” He 
did not stop to say more. He bolted for the tent. 
He was just raising the flap to enter when 
Ephie’s high, frantic shriek cut the air. 

Celia heard it, too, and started after Dick in a 
hurry. 

“ Gracious, Ephie, I forgot all about you.” 
Dick bounded into the tent. “ Why, it’s too bad 
you were shut up in the cage while we were 



A DESPERATE WILD MAN 203 

having a good time. I’m awful sorry.” Dick 
jerked the padlock key from his knickers pocket 
and hastily unlocked the door. 

“ Huh, Ah jes’ guess’s too bad,” gurgled 
Ephraim, dashing a brown arm across his wet 
eyes. “ You done say all the folks cornin’ back 
t’ see me, an’ nobody cornin’ ’round heah ’tall; 
jes’ nobody; not a sin’l pusson.” Ephie lost no 
time in wriggling through the narrow door to 
freedom. He stood up straight and gave him¬ 
self a little shake just as Celia poked her head 
into the tent opening. 

“ For the good Ian’s sake! ” She threw up her 
hands in horrified amazement. “ What you doin’ 
like that, chile? Whey’s you clothes? Who 
done stripe you all up like a barber pole? ” 

“ Ephie’s a wild man, Celia,” Dick explained. 
“ He was a great feature in our circus. We 
made forty-nine cents from the side-show ’cause 
he was in it.” 

“Ah ain’t s’prised. Ephie am an awful- 
lookin’ scarecrow in that rig-out.” Celia looked 
severe for a moment, then she burst into a cackle 
of laughter. “ Ephie, you am a funny-’pearin’ 
bird,” she said. “ Ah done guess you done that 
to Ephie, you Dick. Ah done wash at you house 


204 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

long ’nuf t’ know you cain’t keep way from mis- 
chiff.” 

“ He’s only marked with chalk, Celia.” Dick 
showed his dimples in a wide grin. “ You go and 
sit in the big rocker on the back porch. I’ll take 
care of Ephie. I’ll get Jimmy to help me and 
we’ll fix him up fine in just a little while. He 
hasn’t had any cakes and cream yet, so you’ll 
want to wait until he’s had some.” 

“ Ah might’s well.” Celia sighed resignedly 
and the three started for the back porch. Only 
a few boys who had straggled to the side yard 
were privileged to obtain a last look at “ Epho, 
the Fierce Black Wild Man” as he trotted 
across the back yard escorted by Dick and his 
mother. Dick ran him into the kitchen and raced 
out after Jimmy. 

Together the two showmen tackled the job of 
restoring Ephie. They energetically scrubbed 
him clean of his many-hued stripes, triangles and 
circles, helped him out of the canvas sack and 
back to his blue cotton blouse and knee trousers. 

“ There, Celia, he looks as good as ever, doesn’t 
he?” Dick proudly paraded a now civilized 
Ephie out to where his mother sat rocking and 
talking to Netta. She had brought Ephraim a 


A DESPERATE WILD MAN 205 


saucer heaped high with chocolate and strawberry 
ice-cream and a plate of cakes and set them on a 
small table in readiness for him. 

“ Ah reckon he’s mah li’l boy Ephie, this time.” 
Celia beamed good-naturedly on her clean brown 
son. Ephie had seated himself on the top step of 
the porch, the plate of cream now carefully 
balanced on his knees, the cake plate beside him. 

“ Ah jes’ guess Ah is,” giggled Ephraim. His 
troubles were past. He could now afford to 
laugh. “ But Ah’s gwine tell you right now, 
Mammy, I jes’ guess Ah wuz a purty good li’l 
wil’ man; that's what Ah wuz.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


AFTER THE SHOW 

“ Say,” began Jimmy as he and Dick left 
Ephie to enjoy himself, “ we ought to try to show 
Mr. Burton how much we thank him for the sur¬ 
prise. Why, the circus turned into a regular 
picnic.” 

“ Let’s give him a hig hurrahing,” was Dick’s 
instant suggestion. “ He’s sitting on the veranda, 
right near the east corner of it. We can slide up 
and give him a loud send-off, just like that.” 
Dick struck his hands lightly together. “ We’ll 
get the gang together, just the Winners, I 
mean.” 

“ Oh, fine,” breathed Jimmy. “ Let’s hurry, 
or he may go home before we get the kids 
together. You go one way, and I’ll go the 
other. Bring the fellows you find right to the 
east corner of the house.” 

Jimmy was off in one direction, Dick in 
206 


AFTER THE SHOW 


207 


another, as the words left his lips. Within ten 
minutes they had gathered up the team and the 
nine youngsters were grouped at the east corner 
of the house, heads together, fixing up their 
“ send-off.” 

“ Now remember,” said Jimmy softly, “ we’re 
to say, ‘ Mr. Burton, Mr. Burton, Mr. Burton,’ 
then, ‘ hurrah for Mr. Burton,’ three times. 
After that, 4 hurrah,’ nine times. Then begin at 
the first and do it straight over again. You start 
it. Nelson. You can yell the loudest. Be all 
ready to join in with Nelson, boys.” 

“ I’ll wave my arm like this when I’m ready to 
yell.” Nelson made a pass in the air. 

The group of boys drew together and gleefully 
awaited the signal. Up on the veranda Mr. 
Burton was enjoying himself heartily in the 
company of Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins, Dick’s 
mother and a few other pleasant Lakeview 
persons. 

“ What’s this? What’s this? ” he repeated as 
the complimentary salute to himself rose from 
nine willing throats. The big man’s face turned 
red with embarrassment. He did not know what 
to say. It embarrassed him still more to have the 
grown-ups on the veranda join in. The children 


208 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


on the lawn took up the hurrahing next and the 
grounds rang with cheers. 

“ Come around here, you youngsters, and let 
me have a look at you,” he called out, after the 
hurrahing had died down. 

A cluster of laughing faces appeared around 
the corner of the house, then the Winners 
swarmed the steps and stood in a smiling group 
before Mr. Burton. “ What do you mean by 
stirring up such a pow-wow?” he asked with 
pretended severity. 

“ That’s a thank-you pow-wow,” John told 
him, which made everyone near by laugh. “We 
wanted you to know how we felt about your sur¬ 
prise.” 

“ Oh, that was nothing,” Mr. Burton declared, 
holding up a deprecating hand. “ I had lots 
more than three cents’ worth of fun from the 
circus. Who were those nice children who sang 
Irish songs? I looked for them after the per¬ 
formance, but I didn’t see them. My mother was 
born in Ireland, boys, and she used to sing the old 
Irish songs. I want to hear those children sing 
again some day. Tell them I said so, will you? ” 

The busy showmen had forgotten about the 
Flanagans after they had been given the surprise. 


AFTER THE SHOW 209 

Dick offered to go and hunt them. He did not 
find them. The Five Flanagans had disap¬ 
peared. 

“ I hope they had some ice-cream,” was Dick’s 
hospitable wish. “ They live quite a way from 
here, so I guess they had to start home early.” 

“ Well, I’ll not forget them. They sang like 
true Irishmen,” Mr. Burton said. 

It was almost six o’clock before he and his two 
companions, Alfred Harding and Robert West, 
went home. The rest of the crowd had already 
gone. The showmen, all but Dick, had to go 
home to their dinners. Dick had coaxed his 
mother to let him stay to dinner at Happy House 
so that he could help John and Jimmy clear up 
the lawn before dark, the next day being Sunday. 

Ephraim had not been the only one left in 
captivity when the crowd and the showmen had 
deserted the circus lot for the lawn and veranda. 
Taffy, the raccoon, the parrot and Bolivar still 
remained behind. The door of Taffy’s cage had 
a wobbling button. Taffy had reached a paw 
through the bars during the show and frequently 
batted it. He finally succeeded in opening the 
door, and out he walked. 

The raccoon and the parrot had no such good 


210 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

luck. Bolivar met with good fortune. Several 
boys opened the door of his crate and poked him 
gently with sticks. They liked to see him run out 
his head. They went away after a time leaving 
the door open. It did not take Bolivar long to 
find this out. About the time the crowd was 
eating ice-cream, Bolivar was leaving the tent 
behind him for freedom. He crawled across the 
grass and in the direction of the gardens. Once 
more he had started on his travels. 

When Merritt came for the coon and Nelson 
for the parrot, Bolivar’s escape was discovered. 

“ We’ll have to find him before it gets dark,” 
Jimmy said in a positive tone. “ He’ll travel all 
night and be far away from here to-morrow.” 

“ We’ll each go in a different direction and 
look for him,” proposed Dick. “ Junie can go 
look for him in the back yard. That’ll help 
some.” 

After fifteen minutes’ vain search Dick and 
Jimmy met at the front steps. 

“ Do you suppose he went outside the fence? ” 
Dick asked anxiously. 

“ Maybe he did. That’s where he came from 
in the first place. I’d just like to know how he 
got that door open. I guess some of the boys 


211 


AFTER THE SHOW 

let him out. He’s John’s turtle, you know. 
John likes him a lot.” 

Junior walked up and down his territory a few 
times calling, “Here, Bulvider; come, Bulvider! ” 
He poked under a few bushes with a stick, but 
soon grew tired of his job and wandered off to the 
chicken yard to see how Doodle was after his 
scare. 

John, Jimmy and Dick kept up the hunt until 
Mrs. Hopkins called them to dinner. It was 
Netta who found Bolivar, or rather Bolivar 
almost found Netta. She stepped into the yard 
to bring in the last of the wash and stumbled 
squarely over Bolivar. He snapped at her ankle, 
but missed it. She gave a startled jump and ex¬ 
claimed: “Whu-u-u!” When she found what 
she had stumbled over she laughed. “ So it’s out 
yez are, ye riptil,” she said. “ I’ll soon be put¬ 
ting a stop to yer fun.” 

Just then John came around a comer and she 
turned Bolivar over to his delighted keeping. 
He set up a shout of “ Bolly’s found; Body’s 
found,” which soon brought Dick and Jimmy to 
the scene. 

“You old rascal!” Jimmy exclaimed. “I’ll 
shovel you up in a hurry. You going to be 


212 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


dumped into your rain barrel house again, and 
I’ll fix it so you can’t get out. Go and tell 
Mother we’ll be in to dinner as soon as we shut 
Bolly up in his house.” 

While Dick and Jimmy were “ shoveling up ” 
Bolivar, Jimmy said rather soberly to Dick, 
“ Say, Dick, you know that forty-nine cents we 
got for Ephie, for being the wild man? Well, I 
think we ought to give it to him. He never has 
any money to spend. His mother’s poor and has 
to work hard, and his father’s dead.” 

“ Well, I’d like to give it to him,” Dick replied 
warmly, “ but we’d better ask the fellows what 
they want to do. Nelson was in the side-show, 
too.” 

“ He wouldn’t want any money.” Jimmy 
shook his head. “ I know he wouldn’t. Let’s 
call the boys up after dinner and ask ’em to meet 
us at the cave on Monday afternoon. We need 
to have a meeting. We took in pretty nearly six 
dollars, counting the lemonade. Some people 
paid nickels and even dimes, and wouldn’t take 
any change back.” 

“Pretty nearly six dollars!** Dick repeated. 
“ Whew! that’s fine! What’ll we do with it? ” 

“ Oh, I don’t know. We’ll have to see what 


213 


AFTER THE SHOW 

the fellows say. We don’t need it ourselves. 
All of us have most everything we want. I 
liked the circus for the fun of having it. I didn’t 
care about the money; neither did you, or John.” 

“ That’s so.” Dick looked wise for a moment. 
“ Why don’t we give it all to Ephie? ” was his 
inspiration. “ I guess he deserves it. That was 
quite a hard job, being a wild man.” 

“ Yes, and he wasn’t mad at us for going away 
and forgetting him, either,” Jimmy reminded. 
“ I’d like to give him the money. I think John 
would, too.” 

“ We’ll meet at the cave Monday. If the rest 
of the fellows say * yes,’ we’ll take the money to 
Ephie’s house. I guess that’ll be about the big¬ 
gest surprise Ephie ever had. He’ll be glad he 
was the wild man, even if he did get locked up.” 


CHAPTER XX 


A PRESENT FOR EPHIE 

The three showmen managed, in spite of the 
time lost in hunting Bolivar, to clear up the lawn 
fairly well before dark. Next day was Sunday 
and they took a well-earned rest. Even restless 
Dick told his mother that he was “ kind of tired ” 
and she replied that she was not surprised. 

It was Mr. Hopkins’ last day at home until 
some time in late October, and the three Js 
hovered devotedly around him all day. In the 
afternoon he took Mrs. Hopkins and the boys for 
a long drive. They stopped and had dinner at 
“ Woodland Inn,” a charming restaurant several 
miles north of Lakeview, and drove home in the 
early dusk for one more cozy evening with 
Father at Happy House. 

“ It’s going to be a big long while before 
Daddy’s home again,” John said gloomily to 
Jimmy as the two boys sat staring disconsolately 
214 


A PRESENT FOR EPHIE 21 5 

after the railway taxicab that was just disappear¬ 
ing from their view. It was only a little past six 
o’clock on Monday morning. Mr. Hopkins had 
found it necessary to leave Lakeview on an early 
train, so he had ordered a taxicab from the 
station. The three Js had been up since five 
o’clock. They had eaten breakfast with Daddy 
and seen him off. Now John and Jimmy felt as 
though the world had suddenly stopped moving. 

“ Summer’ll all be over when he comes back,” 
returned Jimmy. “ It will be too late for us to 
have another picnic at the lake, but maybe we 
can go to the woods for nuts. Dick says there 
are lots of chestnuts and butternuts in the Lake- 
view woods in the fall.” 

“ Then we’ll have a campfire and cook our 
meals over it and all that,” planned John. “ We’ll 
think up plenty of good times and surprises for 
Daddy, so we can have them when he comes home 
again. My, but didn’t we have loads of fun last 
week? We were on the go every minute.” 

“ There isn’t much to do this week. We’re 
going to the cave this afternoon. That’s one 
thing we’re going to do. If we give the money 
to Ephie that’ll be a little bit more fun. Oh, I 
forgot our game with the A boys on Thursday. 


216 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

I guess well find enough things to do.” Jimmy 
brightened as he mentioned the coming game. 

“ Yes, and next week’s the beginning of 
school.” John looked rueful. “ We’ll have 
enough to do after school begins. Only, we’ll 
have fun, too, for we know most of the boys. 
When we came to Lakeview we thought we 
wouldn’t know any of ’em until fall.” 

“ And now we belong to a team, and are 
friends with a good many Lakeview fellows. 
I’m glad we met Dick first of all. He’s the 
dandiest chum in the whole world,” Jimmy 
added. 

“ The dandiest chum in the whole world ” was 
having some trouble trying to convince his father 
that it would be necessary for him to go to 
Happy House that afternoon. Mr. Carter had 
suggested that Dick might stay at home once in 
a while and get acquainted with his own family. 

Dick won his point, however, and at two 
o’clock the Winners were all in the cave, munch¬ 
ing huge round sugar cookies and waiting to hear 
what wonderful thing Dick had to tell them. 

“ There are five dollars and eighty-nine cents 
in this box,” Dick began, holding up a small, 
square pasteboard box for the boys to see. 


A PRESENT FOR EPHIE 217 

“ That’s what we made from the circus. We 
made forty-nine cents from the side-show. Lots 
of folks gave us more than three cents to get in, 
you see. Jimmy and I said we thought we ought 
to give Ephie the forty-nine cents. When we 
thought about it some more it seemed as if we 
ought to give him all we made. We thought 
we’d see what you fellows wanted to do.” 

“We don’t want to give Ephie the money un¬ 
less every one of you says ‘ yes ’ and feel that way 
about it,” Jimmy broke in. “ If we divide it 
among us, we’ll each have about sixty-five cents. 
We don’t any of us need that.” 

“We might keep the money and make some 
more some day. Still, I guess Ephie would like 
to have it more’n we would,” observed Merritt. 
“ Our folks let us have most everything we want.” 

The Winners talked the plan over only a 
minute or two. They were more pleased with 
the idea of going to Ephie’s house and presenting 
him with the money than they would have been 
to keep it for themselves. It would be fun to 
surprise the little brown boy. 

Ephie and his mother lived in a three-roomed 
cottage not far from Nelson White’s home. 
Ned Blake felt very proud because Jimmy asked 


218 JIMMY AT HAPPY, HOUSE 

him to be the one to present Ephie with the box. 
Jimmy always tried to give all his chums an equal 
share in things. 

When they reached the little dingy cottage 
they saw Ephie sitting on the low doorstep busily 
making spool work. He looked up in round¬ 
eyed surprise when he saw the circusmen. 
“ Hillo, thar, you boys! ” he cried, showing every 
tooth in his head. “ Ah guess mebbe you wants 
me fer that ole wil’ man again. Heh? You 
gwine have ’nother cercus? ” 

“ Nope, Ephie,” Dick grinned amiably at 
Ephraim, “ no more circus for a while. We came 
to bring you something. Go ahead, Ned.” 

Ned stepped forward and laid the pasteboard 
box on Ephie’s knees. “ Here, Ephie,” he said, 
“ here’s all the money we made from the circus. 
We want you to have it. You were a dandy 
wild man.” Ned ran suddenly out of words. 
“ I—that’s about all I can think of to say. Oh, 
yes; I know. Come on, kids—three cheers for 
Epho, the Fierce Black Wild Man.” 

The three cheers were raised with a will. 
Ephie clutched the box in his brown hands and 
looked dazed. “ You all jes’ foolin’, Ah reckon.” 
He glanced from one to another of the boys. 


A PRESENT FOR EPHIE 219 

“ You don’t gimme this yeah money fer good . 
Purty soon you come take it ’way ag’in.” 

“ No, Ephie, it’s yours for good,” Jimmy told 
him. 

The Winners had to keep on telling him this 
pleasant news until it fully dawned upon him 
that he had come into a small fortune. 

“ Oh, ki, yi; ki yi! ” He jumped up from the 
doorstep with a jolly little shout, shaking the box 
between his hands. “ Ah is rich. Ah is! ” He 
was so carried away by this sudden wealth he for¬ 
got all about saying “ thank you.” 

The givers were not looking for thanks. With 
their usual energy to be on the move again the 
Winners said good-bye and left Ephie, a good- 
natured wildly happy little brown boy, to count 
the riches that were his as a result of being Epho, 
the fierce black wild man. 

When the presentation party reached the Hop¬ 
kins’ gate they couldn’t resist going on up to 
Happy House for a while. It had gradually 
become a kind of headquarters for the Winners. 
They all made for the wide shady back porch 
which was their favorite roosting place. John 
went to the kitchen and teased Netta to make a 
pitcher of lemonade. He gathered up enough 


220 JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 


cakes, which had been left from yesterday’s 
spread, to fill a plate. The boys soon emptied 
the plate. 

“ Happy House is the house where something 
nice or funny is always happening,” John said to 
Jimmy, when, later, the two boys had said good¬ 
bye to their chums and were idly lounging in the 
porch swing on the front veranda. 

Just as John said this Junior came into sight. 
He was wearing the red silk hat and dragging the 
green umbrella behind him. Tip w^as prancing 
along beside him, making frisky little leaps at the 
moving umbrella. 

“ He, he,” giggled John, “ didn’t I tell you 
something funny was always happening at 
Happy House? What are you going to do 
with that umbrella, Junie? That’s Dick’s.” 

“ It are my ’brelly, Johnny. Dick gived it to 
me,” Junior corrected. “ It are my hat, too. 
Dick said so.” 

“ Well, don’t you lose ’em,” counseled John. 
“ We’ll need ’em if we have another circus next 
summer.” 

“ It’s an awful long time till next summer,” 
Jimmy said reflectively. 

“ Yes, but we’ve so many things to do this fall 


A PRESENT FOR EPHIE 221 

we won’t be thinking much about that,” John 
returned cheerily. “ We’ll have some ball games 
yet, even after school begins. Then there’s 
Hallowe’en coming and Thanksgiving. First 
thing we know it’ll be winter, and then Christ¬ 
mas.” 

“ Our first Christmas at Happy House’ll be 
a good, jolly one. It’ll be a happy Christmas at 
Happy House. We’ll ask Mother to let us have 
a great big tree and a Christmas party, and a 
sleigh ride in a big bob sled like the one in 
Nelson’s father’s barn.” Jimmy warmed to the 
delightful subject. 

“ Yes, and we’ll go around in it on Christ¬ 
mas eve and sing carols,” put in John eagerly. 
“We’ll dress Junie up like a Santa Claus and 
take him with us. He can stop and leave pretty 
Christmas cards at the different houses we go to. 
We’ll do a lot more nice things, only I can’t think 
of ’em all just now.” 

Jimmy and John were already planning their 
jolly winter fun. 


The titles in the Happy House Books are : 

JIMMY JOHN AND JUNIOR 

JIMMY AT HAPPY HOUSE 

JOHN AND THE WINNERS’ CLUB (in press) 
















































































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